Naruto Is Not a Teddy Bear
by Yojimbra
Summary: Gaara discovers a way to sleep without the ravings of Shukaku and without fear of turning into the demon itself. The only catch is that she needs to be close to Naruto Uzumaki. Fluffy Naruto/Female gaara.
1. Naruto is so a teddy bear

Four months, nineteen days, twelve hours, thirty six minutes and forty-... two seconds.

Gaara fumed sinking further into one of Konoha's hot springs. The heat reminded her of home. It had been far too long since she had last fallen asleep. With her sudden willpower to fight the demon within her, _Mother_ had been doubling the efforts to drive her insane.

Four months, nineteen days, twelve hours, thirty seven minutes and fifteen seconds ago she had found the answer to her insomnia problem. But the answer only made her problem worse.

Now that she was familiar with sleep she found it harder to function without.

"Just a few more hours." Gaara leaned her hair back. She had decided to grow out her normally short red hair. It was as uncontrollable as Temari's, only much more wild - like a flame dancing in the wind.

"Until what, Gaara?" Temari asked, a comfortable distance away from her. Not close enough to be awkward, but not far enough to show fear. Gaara was happy with the distance.

 _"It would be too troublesome to explain,_ " Gaara thought dryly, choosing not to respond to Temari's question. She didn't want to give her sister the wrong idea. Not after their relationships had improved so greatly.

"You're not planning on killing someone are you?" Temari asked when she got no response. She nearly gasped when Gaara's pale turquoise eyes snapped to her with an annoyed look. She had either been very wrong or very right. "Sorry." She mumbled, scooting a bit further away. She was getting close to the I'm afraid of you distance.

"He wouldn't be happy if I did," Gaara said plainly. She didn't want her sister to move any further away. She wasn't entirely certain if the burn on her cheeks was from the bath. She brought a hand up to forehead, the place where he touched her still burned a hot pleasant heat when ever he came to mind.

"He!?" Temari leaned in closer her face bright.. As Gaara had gotten closer to Temari it became apparent that the blond was a gossip, second only to their brother. Gaara returned Temari's mirthful look with one of disdain. "It's one of the leaf ninja isn't it?" Temari was for once unaffected by Gaara's glare.

Gaara was reevaluating the distance she wanted her sister to be from her at this moment. A couple miles would probably be a good start.

"Let me guess." Temari was fanning her hands as a way of telling Gaara not to speak. Not that the thought had crossed her mind. "It's the green one right, Rock Lee?" Gaara briefly considered whether it was illegal to murder a sand ninja in konoha. It was at the very least frowned upon.

"Sasuke?" Temari asked a smirk on her face. They had just failed a mission to aid Konoha in the retrieval of Sasuke Uchiha. Gaara rolled her eyes.

"I'm done." She said curtly. Quickly rising out of the waters. "This was mostly pleasant." She offered her sister. While the idea to stay in Konoha had been Gaara's idea. The hot spring trip was due to Temari's persistence.

"It's Naruto, isn't it." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Gaara was glad she was already past her sister. Her cheeks were burning. However, the spot where he touched her burnt twice as hot. The slightest smile formed on her face. She would be able to sleep soon.

 _Naruto Uzumaki_

 _Flashback: Four months, nineteen days, nineteen hours, forty three minutes ago_

 _Mother wanted blood. A tribute was needed, a tribute left half given. Tonight she would spill the blood of that ninja. Rock Lee._

 _"You will have blood soon mother." Gaara smiled in the darkness of her lone room. The others were likely asleep. And even if they weren't they wouldn't be able to stop her. Not when she was so close._

 _On the rooftops that fool Dosu tried to kill her. His blood would not satisfy mother. It would not prove her existence for he didn't deserve to exist in the first place._

 _Arriving in the hospital she could smell her kill. It was a primal thing an intense driving need to finish the kill. She passed by the rooms one after another. Rock Lee was at the end of the hall. And soon. Soon she would prove her existence. And mother would be sated._

 _She stopped short. Third room from the end, the door and window wide open. There lay Naruto Uzumaki. He was lay splayed on the bed in the middle of the white room. His injuries recent. Such an idiotic. Worthless fool couldn't be worth the effort. It wouldn't prove his existence. However._

 _"He's like me," Gaara thought seeing the seal pulse on his abdomen. "I'm like him." The thought burned in Gaara's mind. To kill another like him would surely prove her existence. And it would be so quick so easy. A single thought would end the boy's life._

 _Gaara walked into Naruto's room, closing the door behind her. Her footsteps lighter than his soft snoring. A sound Gaara found. It was a sound Gaara could describe. It wasn't important anyways. She willed the sand to began floating towards Naruto. She suppressed a giggle; soon his life would be over and his warm blood would be within mother's sand._

 _"Nee Sakura-chan." Naruto mumbled, turning slightly causing Gaara to give a startled jump. It was the tiniest of movements. So small it was almost unnoticeable._

 _"Naruto Uzumaki. I will let mother drink your blood tonight," Gaara thought with glee as she began to move closer. She prepared to have the sand strike. The sand shifted turning into a sharpened blade. Cuts bleed more._

 _Another step. And suddenly all Gaara felt was tired. She stood blinking a moment. Looking at the sand readied to strike at Naruto's throat. The sand was almost looking at her expectantly. She looked at it expectantly. There was no voice telling her to kill. No constant chittering about blood. No consuming madness._

 _There was only Gaara. For the first time ever it was just her. And she felt tired. A warm feeling swelled up inside of her as she gazed at the sleeping figure of Naruto. She commanded the sand back into the gourd. It seemed happy. Why was mother happy? Didn't she want more blood?_

 _No. There was no mother. Only Gaara right now._

 _And Naruto._

" _Peace," Gaara said feeling the countless nights she had to stay up all at once. Naruto made to move, as though he didn't hear her. She stood there watching him. He was sleeping hard - no one could wake him by accident. She stared at him waiting for the urge to kill him to return. No urge came._

" _Why? Why is mother silent about you Naruto?" Gaara thought in her head. She wanted to know why. Revelations began to come to her. "No. The beast inside of me is not mother." It was a simple revelation. One that would have been easy to make had it not been for her constant insomnia._

 _The Mystery of why and how would have to wait as Gaara felt herself become ever more ready for sleep._

 _She willed the gourd to the nearby chair. And removed the sand on her person. She was vulnerable. For the first time ever. She was completely and utterly vulnerable. And she felt at peace knowing that. Removing her sandals at the base of the bed Gaara wasted barely a second to hesitation as she climbed up onto the bed._

 _Curling her petite form up into a ball to take as little space as possible._

" _Just a few hours." Gaara thought. A few hours of that sweetness known as sleep. She wouldn't need much. Just a few hours and then she would go see if she couldn't talk to father. She needed more time next to this boy to find out why Shukaku was so silent when she was near him. He let her experience something she rarely got. But there was a dull warm sensation of something else entirely. Something that had wounded her so completely it scared her forehead with her symbol._

" _Goodnight Naruto Uzumaki." She thought drifting off into sweet sweet sleep._

Four months, nineteen days, twenty hours, forty one minutes and twelve-... thirteen seconds.

It was dark now. Gaara couldn't help but smile. While her control over it's cravings. Was great. She craved to be free from having to constantly fight for control. Naruto Had given her control twice now. He could beat the thoughts of the demon while it was contained within her. And when the demon was in control. He could beat that too.

She was once a slave to Shukaku. But Naruto had freed her of those bonds. By simply being.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The name brought a smile to her face as she leapt into the warm night air of Konoha. "You're existence is so great I no longer need to prove mine." So she wasn't entirely sane.

As she jumped roof top to roof top towards the hospital she began to wonder. Had she traded one master for another? True she no longer needed blood to feed "Mother". But now she was crippled by sleep. She could feel its need greater now more than ever. A sleep that only Naruto could safely give her. A small part of her also knew that she wanted to be close to him for more than just that reason.

But the pragmatic Gaara's only goal was sleep. That sweet sleep only Naruto Uzumaki could provide. She found that she enjoyed saying his full name. Saying it somehow made him feel more real to her. More important to her. Before when she said the full name of those she wanted to kill as a way to measure their existence

With Naruto Uzumaki it was a way to feel his existence.

His window was easy. But was he asleep? Floating slowly atop her sand she peered into his window. There he was haphazardly sprawled along the bed. All of his sadness about failing to bring Sasuke back vanished in his sleep.

The effect of simply seeing him sleeping brought Gaara a large amount of peace. She scooted closer. As her foot hit the window edge the freedom returned. And Gaara felt tired.

There was no hesitation now. She removed her sandals setting them gently to floor. And commanded her sand to rest on the guest chair. This was as close to giddy as Gaara had ever felt. She curled up on his bed once again. Sleep was coming quicker now. She was facing him this time.

She thought she was in control now. That she was the one dictating her actions. So why was her arm moving up to brush Naruto's cheek.

"Sleep well Naruto" Gaara whispered smiling.

"Ramen." Naruto replied in his sleep.

Tsunade frowned. Largely because it was early in the morning and she was not a morning person. And Shizune was not suppose to arrive and help her for another hour or so. She needed a more of a morning person to help her. She needed to check on the patients of the Sasuke retrieval team. Many of them were stable but in still in critical state. Entering the yard she saw a young pink haired girl standing in front of the door looking eager.

"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura chirpped happily.

"Ahh, Sakura. Here to visit Naruto?" Tsunade asked. She paused when she looked the girl in the eyes. "No… she wants something else." Tsunade thought smiling.

"Yes." Sakura said meekly before her steel showed itself. "But I also want you to teach me."

"Alright you start today. Grab a clipboard and follow me while I check on some patients." Tsunade waved her hand and sakura quickly fell into step.

After a brief overview of her expectations for the day they went on tsunade's rounds. First stop Naruto Uzumaki. Largely because of dual bias of both women.

Sliding open the door the two were instantly confused by the sight before them.

Naruto was lying in his bed snoring quietly a bit of drool around his mouth. He looked incredibly happy and peaceful. With his arms wrapped around the small redhead Gaara. Their legs were entangled and the covers were discarded haphazardly around them.

"... A redhead…" Tsunade mumbled. "... And a foreign jinchuuriki" pinching the bridge of her nose Tsunade began to wonder if it was a genetic thing.

"That's kind of cute." Sakura said a slight blush on her face. "Should I write that down.?" Tsunade's glare wasn't very good as Sakura just continued to giggle.

Marching over to the sleeping pair Tsunade eyed them directly from above. Gaara's face was buried in Naruto's chest and her hands bunched up in front of her gripping Naruto's shirt lightly. A few tear marks on the shirt and Gaara's face indicated that she had cried during her sleep. But the soft tender smile on her face showed that she was enjoying herself.

TAP. TAP. TAP. Gaara was awakened by the sudden tapping on her temple. Her teal eyes shot open. She was staring at Naruto's shirt. She felt his breath on the top of her head. His arms around her. Their legs entangled. She shot her eyes towards the ceiling seeing the half smirk half frowning blonde hokage she had been briefly introduced to yesterday.

Fear overcame her as she attempted to remove herself from Naruto's arms. She didn't want to leave. And He didn't either. A gasp escaped from her as Naruto pulled her in tighter. Placing her head under his chin.

"I see Naruto's a cuddler." Tsunade said smirking as she made a move to help the poor trapped girl. Carefully removing Naruto's arms from Gaara the hokage greeted enough of an opening for Gaara to squeeze out.

Sakura and Tsunade watched with a bemused look on their face as Gaara attempted to quickly put on her sandals. Her sand gourd floating into place as she stood. "I must be going." She said in her usually rough voice. On normal people her voice might have been able to intimidate them. But her beat red face made any intimidation tactics fall flat.

She made it to the door. Sliding passed that pink haired girl. Sakura. Sakura smiled at her. It was a knowing smile. Gaara attempted to glare at her. The glare was something that Gaara had a small amount of pride in. While it was a natural development it had proven incredibly useful to get what she wanted. On all but the strongest and most fearsome ninja the glare might have had some effect.

But this was Sakura. Sakura the foolish pink haired girl that had stared her down as she was attempting to kill Sasuke. Even with her demonic induced madness Sakura didn't back down. And now blushing and as far from Shukaku as she had ever been Gaara didn't have any hope of staring down the girliest girl in konoha. It was humbling.

"I should kill her." That thought wasn't from Shukaku. No that was a Gaara thought. One that caused her to pause. She quickly tried to remove the thought from her mind. Naruto cared for Sakura if him mumbling her name in his sleep was any indication. "Another reason to kill her." Gaara's left eye twitched as that thought passed through her head. She attempted to leave quicker.

A firm grasp on her head forced Gaara to stand still. Her Sand wasn't responding. A side effect of being so close to Naruto? That was not good. But she did feel rested.

"Where do you think you're going?" Tsunade said. Gaara had another thought as her face turned crimson once more. She was caught she should just kill everyone. It was better than this… embarrassment.

"Suna." Gaara offered weekly as she attempted to step away. Only to find her feet weren't touching the ground anymore.

"Explain, why you were cuddling up against Naruto." The hokage's voice was hard and firm. There was no room to argue. The only way she was getting out of this was to explain.

"Sleep." Gaara said and found that her feet once against touching the floor. She hated being so small. Gaara turned to face Tsunade and stared into her scowling face and dancing brown eyes. "My demon…" She looked at Sakura. "Shukaku. Doesn't let me sleep."

"And what does Naruto have to do with that?" Tsunade rose a golden at the girl while Sakura looked to be lost in memories. Perhaps of her lost comrade Sasuke.

"During the Chunin exams. Shukaku wanted me to kill Naruto." She waited for retaliation or gasps. Neither happened. "I tried to. But When I approached him I couldn't hear Shukaku anymore. I was myself. I could sleep without fear next to Naruto." Gaara didn't dare look them in the eyes. She heard Sakura giggle.

"Kakashi always did Say Naruto slept hard enough for two." Sakura said suppressing her laughter.

"Then ever Since Naruto defeated Shukaku I've been trying to suppress it. And it's been working. But I Needed sleep. And only Naruto could let me sleep."

"I see." Tsunade said her face flat as she wasn't entirely certain if she should be yelling at a ninja of another village sneaking into a hospital to literally sleep with one of her injured ninja. "Next time you should ask him though. I don't think he'd mind." Mirth. She decided on mirth. Gaara's blush returned. "And you won't have to wait five months before you can safely sleep." She ruffled Gaara's dark red hair.

"Stop blushing you look like a tomato." Tsunade said laughing as the girl's embarassment quickly turned to anger. The sand flared to life around her. "My my just like Kushina." Tsunade thought laughing inwardly. "Now get going, I need to check on his health." She left the still fuming Gaara and amused Sakura in the hallway. Gaara turned to make a quick exit.

"Hey." Sakura started. "You should ask Naruto out. He's oblivious and you two would make a cute couple." Gaara could feel her cheeks burn. The spots where he touched her naked skin. Skin without sand. Burned hotly.

"I… Uhh…" Gaara said. Not once in her lifetime had she ever thought about being in a relationship with someone. She once thought it was pathetic. A distraction before people eventually died. The ultimate sign of weakness that deserved to be purged from her thoughts. And yet the prospect of Naruto leave her without words.

"I'll set you up. Meet us at ichiraku ramen at Two, if you're still in the village that is." Sakura said walking into the room. Gaara Nodded. She could make her team wait an extra day if need be. Temari certainly wouldn't mind. "Hey Naruto! Want to get ramen?" Sakura yelled in the other room.

Gaara quickly left as she heard him wake up.


	2. Gaara's pre date panic

"We're leaving." Gaara said coldly the second she opened walked into the quarters her team had been given by the hokage. Temari jumped at her sister's sudden announcement. Temari looked slightly nicer than normal.

"Wait, where were you last night." Temari asked frantically. She was hiding something. She was wearing lipstick. Gaara found that she didn't care. She had been awake for all of twenty minutes and all she wanted to do was to go back to sleep.

But that would require Naruto. A very awake Naruto that may or may not know that she had slept in his bed. A Naruto that may or may not have wrapped his arms around her as they slept. Gaara tried to frown away the blush that was creeping up on her face. But like that pink haired girl her blush would not be intimidated.

She had felt so completely and utterly safe when she woke up this morning. For all of two seconds before she realized what exactly was going on. Then it became a horrible nightmare where she was utterly powerless and defense less against two of the most evil hecklers she could have encountered. Or so Gaara thought. She was spared having all of Konoha and probably all of Suna know by the end of the week by the absence of Ino.

"Gaara!" Temari half shouted snapping her fingers a safe distance from Gaara. Gaara jumped a bit. She wasn't used to this lag. To this much thought. She was overthinking things. "Where were you last night…. Is somebody dead?" Temari asked turning deadly serious.

Gaara's frown deepend. She hadn't killed for the sake of killing since Naruto beat her. She could have ignored the first part of the question. But the second part. She wasn't comfortable leaving that one open to interpretation.

"No." Gaara said slowly and drily. Temari's look showed that that answer wasn't going to be enough. "I was…. Sleeping." Temari gasped covering her mouth.

"I...Did...I didn't feel Shukaku… How?" Temari said many other things in a minute of rambling but those were the only ones that Gaara could make out. She was so tired right now. All she wanted to do was to go back to sleep. And that would require Naruto. That meant she wanted to be near Naruto. Being near Naruto meant many things.

Gaara hated feeling embarrassed. It was one of the emotions that came easiest to her. It was rather.

"Troublesome." She heard coming from the doorway. The doorway She left open. She hadn't expected to be here this long. Simply get her brother and sister and leave. But now it appeared as though fate had other plans.

"Is that how you greet every girl?" Temari shot back at the intruding figure. Gaara turned and saw that it was the tired looking boy that had lost to his Sister in the Chunin exams. Gaara shot her Sister a look. Temari shot one back.

"Only ones that make me show them around town." Shikamaru said fidgeting with the brace for his broken finger. He regarded gaara slowly. Ahh there was that fear of her that she had been used to feeling off people.

She liked that people still feared her. It was a nice feeling that somethings were the same. But that was part of the problem she didn't like the fact that she liked it when people feared her. She wanted to change that to prove that she was no the demon that slept inside of her.

"So about the sleeping?" Temari asked in a hushed tone. Shikamaru likely heard her but if he did his face didn't care enough to show any emotion other than painstaking boredom. Gaara looked at her sister. She wanted to glare away the question. The glare wasn't working.

People were so much easier to manage when they were afraid.

"I." Gaara began slowly. Trying to find the right way to answer the question without answering to much. Because the truth that Gaara can fall asleep without fear as long as it's in the same bed as Naruto Uzumaki was not something that the public or anybody ever needed to know. Not now not ever. "Found a way to sleep without Shukaku coming out." Short simple.

"Really? What is it? It's in Konoha? Do you think we can take it back to the sand?" Gaara was in shock as she watched her sister's face dance with happiness. How was it possible to be so happy for someone else.

"No. we can't take him to Suna." Gaara said without thinking. She didn't even realize what she said. Until she saw Temari's face blossom with excitement. Such overjoyed enthusiasm was rare on her stubborn workaholic sister.

"Him" Gaara briefly wondered how long it would take to bury Konoha in sand. Sister included.

"It's Naruto isn't it?" Shikamaru said casually leaning against the door. Gaara gave him a look that could kill. Shikamaru backed down instantly. "Look I just saw you leaving the hospital this morning when I went to see Choji." Gaara's face began to turn red as she remembered in great detail what happened less than an hour ago. "That and I heard Sakura explaining to Naruto that he had a date with you."

"A date!?" Temari half shouted. "Then why did you want to leave so early?" The pregnant silence filled the air as Gaara glared at the wall. She was hoping that the wall would suddenly explode and she would have to fight something. "Gaara? Are you embarrassed?" Temari hit the nail on the head quickly. "Do you not want to go on a date with Naruto?"

"No, it's I…" Gaara found herself at a loss for words. She felt Temari's hand touch her shoulder. The sand wrapping around her sister's hand. It wasn't going to Temari. But the sand made it known that it was watching.

"What do you think of Naruto Gaara?" Temari's voice lacked any hesitation. Her fearless posture concerned look on her face and kindness in her voice spoke volumes to gaara as she wondered if this is what having a sibling truly felt like.

"Should I go or something?" Shikamaru said from the door. Gaara was glad. It would give her just that few extra seconds to arrange her thoughts.

"Just sit down." Temari ordered. Shikamaru slouched down in the doorway with a light thump as he took a sitting position in the middle of the door. Temari scowl at him was a temporary thing as she looked back at Gaara. Temari tightened the grip.

"Naruto… is… like me." Gaara said bringing a free hand to her stomach. To the seal Temari knew. "He grew up alone. He grew up being feared and hated. Like me." Gaara sighed deeply remembering the fearful looks the villagers of the sand gave her. "But he didn't give in to the darkness. He's too bright. To happy." The rug on the ground was really very interesting. "He showed me that it's not too late. That I could be myself."

"And the sleeping?" Temari probed.

"I don't know." Gaara said still learning every fiber of the rug on the ground. "I discovered it when I went to kill him." She waited for the gasps. The shock. They knew her to well. "Back at the chunin exams. I was going to kill him. _It_ wanted me to." She explained clenching her fists at the thought of what she used to be.

"But I couldn't do it." Gaara admitted. "I tried to but when I got close to him I couldn't. I couldn't hear _It's_ voice anymore. There was no need to kill no thirst for blood. For the first time ever I was alone." Gaara's fist trembled slightly. "Except for him. He was there and I felt so tired."

"So that was when you wanted to talk to father?" Temari asked raising an eyebrow. Gaara nodded. "Damn." Gaara's thought's exactly.

"I feel like I don't have to worry when I'm around him." Gaara said finally. "Like I'm safe and that he'll do what he can to make me happy."

"That's Naruto for you. He may be a pain in the ass but he hates seeing other people suffer." Shikamaru said from the door frame. Temari glared at him.

"Look, Gaara." Temari said flatly. "I think that if you're able to sleep and not have to worry when you're near Naruto then that's something you should hold onto. But you should do what you want to do okay?"

"Do.. what I want to do?" Gaara repeated back as Temari's hand left her shoulder. Gaara pondered those words as Temari left with Shikamaru.

"I want to sleep." Gaara said flatly eyeing the clock. And much to her distress sleep would require Naruto. It would be so much easier if he knew about it. She wouldn't have to sneak into his room. He might even make a trip to Suna to give her some sleep.

Suna her home. The council was already talking about making her Kazekage. It had been her family's duty for generations now. They weren't called of the desert for nothing. The sudden death of their father left Suna without a proper heir. Temari was strong, for a genin and smart. Konkuro was strong as well. But they both lacked the willingness to be Kazekage. And they were both not strong enough. That left Gaara. She was strong. Perhaps the strongest in the village. What better way to protect a desert than with the desert.

But gaara was a demon in many of the people she would be protecting in the sand. Gaara wanted to change that. She didn't want to be a demon anymore. She wanted to prove herself to the village. As the Kazekage.

Maybe she could get Naruto through some political marriage? That thought caused Gaara to turn bright red as she sat alone. Allowing herself to calm down gaara sighed.

"I should talk to Naruto." She mumbled to herself. Her own thoughts were becoming strained Shukaku was raving at her to stay away from Naruto. That only strengthened her resolve to see Konoha's container of the kyuubi.

A quick rapid and loud knock came from the door. Gaara blinked. Ninja knock?

"Enter." Her voice held more venom than she intended. The door slid open revealing Rock lee who quickly entered a deep bow.

"Gaara-san! The Hokage and lovely Sakura-chan has asked me to escort you to your date with Naruto-kun!" Lee maintained his bow as he shouted off his orders. "I would also like to thank you once again for your assistance the other day. Had you not been there I would have died." Gaara stared at lee for a moment as he maintained his bow.

Lee. He had also managed to hurt her. Not to the same degree as Naruto or that Uchiha but Gaara fought Lee she had taken damage. Gaara wanted to test something. Standing quickly she walked over to the bowing lee.

"Thank you Lee." Gaara said plainly extending her small hand towards rock lee. "But I should be appologizing for attempting to kill you before." Lee shot up and took her hand with both of his and began shaking it vigorously.

"Then I now consider us Even you attempted to take my life and you also saved it. Now we should be off for your date with the youthful Naruto!" Lee's eyes were filled with passion and flame. Gaara couldn't help but smile. Well as close to a smile as she had ever given.

She could feel Lee's hand and feel the warmth in his smile. But they were completely different from Naruto. Everything was different from Naruto though. He alone made Shukaku nothing more than a bad dream she had years ago. As opposed to now when she could feel it raving to kill Rock Lee. But Gaara was in control now.

"Lead the way." There it was that same gravely tone monotoned that flowed from her mouth with ease. Rock lee turned sharply and began a proud half-march half leisurely stroll. It was only then that she realized something about what lee said. Not the date with Naruto part. That part was still fresh on her mind and she would hear those words spoken half way around the world at this point.

"What is Naruto's relationship with the hokage?" It seemed very unusual that the Hokage would task a ninja with making sure that a date would go off without a hitch. And then there was the fact that both the Hokage and Naruto were rather blond.

"Naruto-kun is the only person in the village that can call Tsunade-sama grandma and get away with it." Lee said proudly. Then he thought for a moment. "Though I do not believe that they are related as when I asked Sakura-san about it she said that Tsunade-sama had never had children."

Gaara was relieved. And then felt horrible about why she was relieved. She was relieved because Naruto was still alone. Just like her. But she had had a father. And she has her brother and Sister. No they were different. Yet the same.

Gaara remained in silence as Rock Lee lead her through the village. Her face calm and rather disinterested. As long as she didn't think about the fact that she was actually going to speak with Naruto. As In more than a passing hello. More than a shouting match as enemies. But as a Girl as a Boy. As long as she didn't acknowledge that she would be calm.

"Lee." Gaara began slowly. Wishing Temari was here. She would know what to do. Temari knew everything after all.

"Yes Gaara-san?" Lee asked as they rounded a corner. "Ahh there it is Ichiraku Ramen!" Lee said quickly pointing a finger at the small stall. The place where she would have her first date with Naruto.

"How do dates work?" Gaara asked refusing to even remotely consider the fact that she was on a date for if she did it was very likely that her calm composure would crumble instantly and she would run away. Or kill people. Lee froze mid stride and quickly went stiff as a bored. Did he hear her brief thought about murdering people?

"I… Have never been on a date myself." Lee said slumping. "But Gai-sensei has and he told me. "Lee, the most important thing to do on a date is to be yourself. No matter what" Lee's posture instantly resumed its previous happy and sturdy stride.

"What if you don't know how to be yourself?" Gaara mumbled to herself. Her feet felt heavy. Her stomach was twisting in Knots. "What if what you really are is a monster?" She heard herself say. There it was the truth. She feared that she truly was what Shukaku had tried to make her.

"You are no monster Gaara." Lee said smiling at her. "Neither me nor Naruto-kun think that and there are many others that don't think that as well." They were nearly there now. A few more steps. The seats were empty. This was good. Naruto wasn't there yet.

"As for knowing how to be yourself… well I'll let you know if I ever figure that out." Lee said brightly opening up the flap and guiding Gaara in. "Would you like me to wait here with you so you do not have to wait alone?"

"No." Gaara said flattly. She wanted to go with him. Leave and never deal with Naruto again. She didn't ever want to see his face again. She took the seat and began staring intently at the hard wooden counter top.

"Very well Gaara-san." Lee said with a strong armed salute. "Best of luck on your date with Naruto-kun!" And with that lee quickly left.

"Did I hear him right?" Gaara turned to stare at the voice. It was the woman behind the counter. She was older. But still young. "Are you on a date with Naruto-kun?" The woman had mirth in her eyes and a bright smile that made gaara want to bury her in sand. She could hear the implied _my_ in that sentence.

"Yes." Gaara said shortly. She didn't intend for there to be that much venom in her food. She didn't want to give the woman a reason to poison her food.

"That's wonderful!" The woman clapped happily. "Naruto-kun has been our favorite customer for years now! It's about time he brought a date here. My names Ayame by the way. And yours is Gaara?" The woman extended a slightly moist hand over the counter towards Gaara.

"Yes." Gaara repeated as she slowly reached for Ayame's hand. Gaara remarked once again. How different the touch was from Naruto's. Seeing the woman was confused by her simple statement Gaara began to elaborate. "My name is Gaara and I do have a…." She couldn't say that would be acknowledging it. That would be giving it power.

"No need to be shy. Naruto's like a little brother to me! I'll make sure he treats you right!" Ayame said cheerfully. As she began to rewash her hand. As it was now ever so slightly sandy. "So tell me about yourself Gaara-chan"

Gaara tried to speak but the words didn't come out. This was Naruto's sister. Kind of. Even if she wasn't related to him by blood like Temari was to Gaara it still meant that once again Naruto and Gaara were very much alike. She was about to speak about to make an honest attempt to get to know this girl that said Naruto was like a little brother. But then the world stopped.

"But Sakura-chan how do you know she wants to do?" She heard Naruto whine. Ayame heard it too and smiled giving Gaara a sly wink.

"Naruto shut up already, she wants to." There it was that persistent and annoying pink haired voice. Gaara wanted to bury her in sand for setting all this up. She was not allowed to the wedding. That thought turned Gaara instantly red.

"But how do you know!" She heard Naruto whine. They were closer now. So close.

"Because she's here already. Now get in there and remember what I told you." Naruto was half-pushed in through the flaps. "Don't screw this up idiot." Gaara didn't even hear that. All she could hear was the sight of Naruto.

He was standing there in from her. He looked exactly how he normally did. But gone was his jacket instead he wore a simple shirt dictating his loyalty to Konoha. His headband was replaced by a set of bandages. She had a feeling those were there mostly to annoy him as he didn't have any head damage last night.

Last night. The thought made Gaara blush. Did he know what she did? What he did? Did they tell him? If they did Gaara would have to kill them Hokage or not.

"Uhh hi Gaara-chan." Naruto said with a heavy blush on his face as he took the seat next to her. "Compliment her." She heard Naruto say quietly to himself. She was staring hard at him. She was listening hard at him. He was the only thing in the world she could pay attention to at that moment. And she so desperately wanted to pay attention to anything else. "Are you letting your hair grow out? Because you look beautiful with your red hair." Naruto said honestly.

Gaara froze. Her, beautiful? Her face felt hot. She couldn't deal with this.

In an instant gaara was in a cocoon of sand sitting on the stool. Her small legs poking out from the bottom. To the whole world she looked ridiculous. But that didn't matter. Gaara couldn't see the world so the world didn't exist right then.

 **AN: I decided I felt like that was a good stopping point for this chapter so that way I won't end up with a super long date chapter that will hopefully be really fluffy. Thanks for reading! I'm aiming to have this story just have 3k words per chapter. It just feels like the right amount for what I have intended with this story.**

 **See you guys sometime next week with chapter 2 of Kurama goes through puberty. And then in the week after that you'll get chapter 3 of this! Maybe sooner!**

 **Anyways until next time!**


	3. Noodles of love! Broth of confusion

"That is adorable!" Ayame slowly squealed in delight. She looked at the terrified naruto who looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"What'd I do!?" Naruto asked frantically looking back and forth between Ayame and the Gaara egg.

"Nothing bad." Ayame was smiling as brightly as Naruto did. "You just made her really happy is all. And probably equally embarrassed." Ayame looked half tempted to tap on the gaara egg with her ladle.

"Uhh" Naruto said slowly as began to calm down himself. His face felt really not right then and he was probably blushing. "Gaara-chan are you okay?"

The egg was silent.

Then a small part of it crumbled away. Naruto couldn't see inside of it because it was so dark. But he did try.

"Can you say that again?" Gaara's voice was like a pebble rolling down a silk curtain. Naruto blinked at the hole in the egg. While he didn't have any experience with dating he was fairly certain that this was not normal.

"Uhh you're beautiful?" Naruto half-said half asked. But it was all truth. It wasn't something he had ever considered before in Gaara. Before she was a bloodthirsty maniac. But now after seeing her again. And seeing her personality change. And last night. Naruto's blush returned full force at the thought of last night. After all that he thought that she was really attractive.

There was just something about pale redheads. Like he was genetically attracted to them or something. That and he didn't want either of them to be alone. And what better way to not be alone than together?

"I see." Gaara's monotone voice echoed from inside the sand egg. There was a small silence before the hole resealed itself.

"What should I do Ayame!?" Naruto asked in a panic.

"About the egg or her?" Ayame asked with a smile. She was happy it was slow at the moment so that she could continue to watch this.

"Both?" Naruto offered. He was completely clueless. "I mean I can probably break the egg with the Rasengan but that seems violent." Naruto half boasted.

"Just stay calm and she'll come out on her own. She showed up so she clearly wants to spend time with you." Ayame said smiling. She then looked at the egg small finger width lines began to appear on it.

"Oh hey she's writing something!" Teuchi said smiling. He'd been listening to the whole conversation for a while now. He was very happy naruto choose his stand to be the place for his first date. "Just like the time Kushina dragged Minato here when I first opened" Teuchi thought happily. "Minus the sand that is." He found himself chuckling as he prepared his special super secret love forever noodles.

There wasn't anything special about them. No simple ingredients. Just simply noodles that were stretched into circles. And then cut. Just a small difference in how they were made. And the fact that Teuchi believed they were special. He had given Kushina and Minato the same noodles. So he had a bit of faith.

"What's it say what's it say?" Naruto asked excitedly bouncing on his seat. Ayame smiled as she leaned in close to read the words.

"Let's see. It says, "You look good as well, Naruto." this is just too cute!" Ayame half squealed. Naruto smiled and blushed.

"Hehe thanks." Naruto said the the gaara egg. "But uhh can you come out now?"

The egg was silent.

And then the sand fell. Gaara's face was once again the emotionless mask the world was accustomed to her wearing. Her body language was cool and calm. She believed that she would be able to maintain this composure for the entire date. But with the way her heart was going bubbububububububububub. She knew it was going to last.

Maybe she'd have a heart attack before things got much worse.

"So what'll you to love birds have?" That composure didn't last long at all. Perhaps if Ayame knew that she was teasing two of the most powerful shinobi in the future she might not be teasing them as much. Then again. She probably would.

Gaara shifted her gaze to Naruto. The blush on his face brought her no small amount of relief. She wasn't going to suffer alone. She was going to cling on to Naruto and drag her down the hellish emotion of embarrassment so that she wouldn't suffer alone.

"Order for me." She commanded Naruto. Naruto was shocked by her demand.

"Umm well what do you like?" Naruto offered. He didn't want to give her something she hated! If he gave her something she hated then she would hate him and that would be the opposite of what a date was suppose to do. At Least according to Naruto which was according to Sakura. Then again she had never been on a date either.

"I don't know I've never eaten ramen before." A small smile crept into gaara's face as she watched him squirm. Oh so that's why people did it. Naruto's face twisted between shock, horror. And then finally revelation. Did he find out what she was doing? Gaara's offense was failing and she had no defense for any form of counter attack.

"Well what's your favorite food Gaara-chan?" Naruto asked sincerely. How somebody could never have eaten raman was a completely foreign concept to him. It was something that needed to be fixed. And Naruto sought to make it the best first experience ever. Gaara was taken back by the question it allowed her to collect herself once again.

"Salted tongue." Gaara replied simply. Naruto nodded once as he processed the answer trying to find something that tasted like Salted tongue. Wait humans had tongues! He had a tongue! Didn't gaara use to kill people?

Gaara watched as Naruto's face twisted in horror. Was it something she said. What was he suddenly realizing that he didn't want to be here with her? And then she realized what it sounded like.

"Cow, tongue." She explained her face growing hot as she watched Naruto's face twist from horror to relief.

"Oh hahaha that makes a lot more sense." Naruto scratched the back of his head in an attempt to shake off the embarrassment.

" _It"_ Gaara began slowly "Never made me eat them." She didn't know Ayame. But she needed to know that naruto knew she never actually ate somebody. It seemed direly important enough to risk letting other people know about her fight against Shukaku.

"That's good, Let's get you the beef ramen then. It's from a different part of the cow than the tongue." Gaara almost wanted to point out that they were very different and just because she liked one didn't mean anything. But decided to drop it. "One Miso ramen and one Beef ramen Ayame!" Naruto shouted happily.

"Coming right up!" Ayame said happily. She chalked up most of their conversation to Ninja. And she decided that she needed to make the mood happier by being happy. It was waitressing rule number #1 on her father's training list.

And then came the horrible awkward silence on the first date where neither of the two know what to say. Naruto's eyes kept dancing around. It was only ramen so he had to wait like five minutes tops. But for Naruto those five minutes felt like an eternity. He kept looking at Ayame, Back to Gaara, her face, her eyes, her hair. That lovely red hair. What was it about red hair? He was just drawn to it. It was why he thought Sakura was pretty. He settled staring at her hands.

Gaara was like ways having a panic attack. She paid infinitely close attention to the grain on the counter. It's every single line a twisting swirling maze. She so desperately wanted to pay attention anything but Naruto. She was failing that task in every sense. He saw his eyes dart around the room. Did he think Ayame was pretty? Why was he looking at her? Was something on her face? Avoid eye contact stare at wood. Why is he looking at my hair. Why does he like my hair? Is that all he likes? Why's he looking at my hands?

"So uhh." Naruto began oh so smoothly a bit of suaveness in his voice. Just a bit. Like a grain of suaveness in an ocean of awkwardness. "About last"

The world went in slow motion. He was going to say night. He knew he knew did somebody tell him? Who was she going to kill? Everybody? Everybody sounds good. Very plausible option. Everybody but Naruto. She needed him for sleep. Wait maybe she just needed his body. He was forming the N now she could see his tongue touching the roof of his beautiful mouth.

Wait beautiful? No time to think need to shut him up. Can't hear the question. Can't let him know. If she kissed him that would shut him up. Wait what no that would make things worse. Wait her sand! Sand was good.

Naruto watched as the Sand began to swirl around Gaara. Dammit not again he needed to talk to her. To find out what happened last night. To let her know that he enjoyed it. That it was her that stopped his nightmares last night. He needed to know that she knew! But he was bad with words.

Action he was good at action!

"Not again!" Naruto shouted jumping towards gaara as her sand cocoon formed around her. With Naruto half trapped inside of it.

"Why am I so… guh!" Gaara asked herself in the darkness of her egg. She was alone. With just her thoughts. Naruto was close enough that Shukaku wouldn't be bugging her. Is this what being alive felt like? So empty headed. She could literally feel herself think.

"So what?" Naruto's voice rang clearly in the darkness. She could feel his breath. How did she not notice it before. His face was so close. She could feel his heat. It was making her melt. That undeniable warmth she had felt this morning when she woke up in his arms. Arms. One of his was touching one of hers. On that hand. They were touching. Skin to skin. Is this sex?

Was she going to get pregnant?

"So yea about last night." Gaara froze how was she going to explain herself. How was she going to tell him that she found out that she could sleep next to him without shukaku coming out only because she was trying to kill him. "I don't care how you ended up in my bed. But I really like it. It was nice."

Wait what.

"Can you repeat that?" Gaara felt like she was going to ask that a lot with Naruto. There was to much to process.

"Umm I liked sleeping next to you and waking up next to you." Naruto said honestly his leg was twitching outside of the cocoon and he couldn't really move around much. He grabbed one of Gaara's hands with his own. But the other was stuck inside the sand.

There was no blush where Gaara heard his words. No sense of Embarrassment. No shyness. The only thing that Gaara felt was a wave of utter happiness wash over her.

That happiness made her do something stupid. And quickly turned into embarrassment.

"Me too." Gaara mumbled happily As she kissed Naruto on the nose.

Naruto's world went blank as he felt the rough chapped lips of Gaara surround the tip of his nose oh so briefly. His first kiss. His first real kiss! It was on the nose but that didn't matter it was real and from a girl! That last part was important. A kiss on the nose from Gaara. That was more important. Oh and she liked sleeping with him! Bonus!

"We should uhh continue our date." Naruto said once his mind was able to fully process reality again. And suddenly he was falling to the ground. But the sand caught him and gently guided him to the floor. He stood up quickly and saw Gaara staring at her bowl of ramen. He saw his own.

"Thanks for the meal!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically as he split the chop sticks.

"Thanks for the meal." Gaara repeated and mirrored Naruto's splitting of the chop sticks. She saw him happily slurp up some noodles. She'd never eaten ramen before. Or any other kind of soup. She quickly found out that beef ramen was awesome.

The thin slices of beef mixed well with the veggies and broth. She ate one of those first. With a satisfying slurp. A bit of the juices slapped up into her face. She eeped in surprise. She quickly looked to see Naruto smiling at her having paused from his own meal.

An act that seemed to amaze Ayame.

"Is it good?" Naruto asked hopefully. Gaara simply nodded and decided that actions spoke louder than words. She began slurping up moderate portions of Noodles.

She tried everything in the dish one at a time. And then she got to a weird star with a pink swirl in the center of it. It looked like a cookie kinda but had the texture of the egg. It was spongy. Timidly she took a bite out of it.

"Oww" She heard Naruto say as soon as she bit down. She quickly turned her head towards him. Was he hurt? Did somebody hurt him? Was she going to have to bury somebody? Then she saw him smiling at her. She felt her blush returning. He was pulling a joke on her.

"Oww?" Gaara asked as she finished her bite of the weird thing. It was quite tasty.

"You bit me!" Naruto accused. Pointing a finger at her with a large smile on his face. Gaara blinked. She didn't understand his joke.

"No I bit into this thing." Gaara didn't like that Naruto was giggling at her. He should be giggling with her.

"That's a Narutomaki Gaara-chan." Gaara blinked at his explanation. "And I'm Naruto Uzumaki." She continued to blink.

"I see." She stared at her Narutomaki. Opened wide. And at the whole thing whole. "Naruto's taste good." She said with a small smile on her face as she resumed looking at her own ramen. She saw his blush as he resumed eating his ramen.

"Oh my" Ayame squealed happily from the counter. While she would never consider a ramen date romantic these two were unbelievable cute. She blamed ninja.

She saw it just floating there in his ramen. A perfect little Narutomaki. Just sitting there. Unguarded. Her strike was quick and sudden a single noodle of her own ramen trailing behind as she went for Naruto's Narutomaki.

Success target acquired. Delivering package to mouth.

"H-hey!" Naruto whined as he saw Gaara eat his Narutomaki. She gulped it down a formed a small smile on her face. "Why'd you do that?" He asked with a pout.

"No cannibalism." Gaara deadpanned as she resumed eating her ramen. She couldn't help but smile a bit more as she heard Ayame and Teuchi let out a hearty laugh from behind the counter.

"That's mean Gaara-chan" Naruto pouted before a smile broke out onto his face. He vaguely considered the notion of stealing one of her beef slices in retaliation. But decided to let her have this victory.

"I'll pay." Gaara said firmly. The meal was over and it was time for their first lover's quarrel.

"No I'll pay besides I asked you out." Naruto huffed pulling out his wallet.

"Actually it was Sakura Haruno." Gaara said flatly. Naruto blushed. "So I'll pay."

"How about it's on the house?" Teuchi said happily. "So long as you two comeback in the future." Teuchi said with a smile.

"Thank you." Gaara said bowing towards Teuchi. She then slowly turned to Naruto. "What now?"

Neither of them had any idea.

"Psst Naruto. Take her for a walk around konoha." Ayame loudly whispered at the blond boy.

"Yea good idea, Thanks for the free food!" Naruto said happily as he opened the flap for gaara. He didn't have to lift it up very high for her.

Gaara was unsure of what would happen now. What would happen without the distraction of food! Would he found out that he hated her? Just like everybody else? And then she saw him smile at her. At her. She gave him a small smile back and easily slipped under the flap.

Ayame turned to her father her eyes sparkling with mischief. "So why'd you offer to pay for their meals?" She asked nudging her father.

"Tsunade-sama will pay for gossip on those two." Teuchi said with a small smile. Being a ramen stand owner in a ninja village he had two currencies. Money and information.

 **AN: Bit of a shorter chapter this time. I honestly didn't intend for the ramen scene to be nearly 3k words on its own. Like wow. So I decided to cut the date into two. Largely because part two is when the important stuff happens. Anyways this was the first real interaction between Naruto and Gaara so I hope you guys enjoyed it.**

 **My next update will be for Kurama Goes Through Puberty, if you don't mind a bit of crude humor with action check it out. Though be warned it's Rated M for a reason.**

 **After that we'll be seeing the next update for this. Or it might come out before hand. I make no promises. I just let the fiction flow. Anyways until next time!**


	4. Twitterpation It means love

Naruto was completely aware of everything he was saying. His lips were moving and sound came out. It was such an easy thing to do. But he honestly couldn't remember what he was talking about. Not that he ever did.

One thing though, was that he remembered every single reaction Gaara had to his words. He told her about the mission to wave at least twice at this point; about the fight with Orochimaru; and about the time he painted the Hokage monument.

Gaara was only vaguely aware of what Naruto was talking about. She wasn't bored by any means. She was thoroughly entertained for most of it. It was just that Naruto was so distracting. And he talked so much. He talked enough for one and three quarters people.

Which was absolutely fine because she barely spoke enough for a quarter of a person. Together they talked enough for two people. Perfect match.

That and she really wanted to sleep right now. She had gone years without sleeping before; now she couldn't imagine how she'd make it until night. Not with Naruto and such blissful rest so close; and if he wanted to hold her again, she wasn't going to complain.

She wanted to him to hold her now though. Eyeing his hand slightly, she felt her cheeks heat up; that would be lewd though. It was then that she became aware of the stares of the villagers.

Naruto had noticed gaara's silence. It was longer than it normally was he wanted to know what she was thinking. His nose still tingled warmly from where she had kissed him. That simple gesture would have him beaming for months.

That was when he saw her turn her head; her small warm smile fading for the first time all day. She avoided eye contact like the plague, it was then his eyes slowly widened in realization, and then he too, became aware of the stares.

"They're glaring at us because." Their thoughts echoed with one another.

"I attacked their village." But hers was a recent guilt

"Of the kyuubi." And his was an old scar

"I'm ruining our date!" Their conclusion was in unison.

The mood of twitterpation left the two quickly. There they were standing in the middle of a busy street; parents and ninja alike were all glaring at them. They went out of their way to leave them alone; in the cold world.

Gaara became aware of Naruto's silence. It never lasted this long before. She looked over to him fully. Seeing his frown instantly made her realize that she was also frowning. Now he thought that she didn't want to be with him. That maybe she had somehow grown tired of him. Her frown deepened.

To hell what these villagers thought about her. To hell what they thought about Naruto.

She claimed him quickly. Right there in the street. Bare skin quickly met bare skin before slowly entangling themselves in one another. The sand offered them privacy encasing them in it's embrace. It was going to get very hot. She smiled at him as she held his hand

Naruto to jumped as Gaara grabbed his hand quickly. "Gaara-chan?" He asked suddenly with a half stutter. He felt her weave her fingers in between his own and gripped tightly. His frown snapped into a smile. He watched in curiosity as a bit of gaara's sand covered their hands. This was their string of fate.

Gaara's blush was an amazing thing to behold.

"Let's go where there are less people." Gaara said with the slightest of smiles. It was a small warm thing. And it made Naruto's heart go pittypittypatt. He silently decided to see just how big he could make her smile.

"I know just the place. Gaara-chan." And so Gaara found herself running after Naruto as he pulled her along by their sand encased hands. Though truth be told. Naruto had no idea where he was going. That didn't matter though. As long as he was going somewhere with Gaara.

They ended up at a log that served as a natural bridge, near training ground three. Their hands were still encased in sand. They were swimming in sweat. It was becoming mildly unpleasant.

"Uhh Gaara-chan." Naruto asked as he slowly began leading her across the log. He heard her low 'hmm?'

It was a quiet sound and he was grateful that they were away from all the people; only he wanted to hear that. It was so cute "Do you mind letting my hand go? It's getting kind of sweaty." He didn't want let go of her. But he didn't want to have their hands swimming in sweat either. "The sands a little warm."

"Sorry." Gaara said with a blush forcing the sand down and away from them. She examined her own slightly moist had slick with the combinations of hers and Naruto's juices. It would be easy to go days without washing it in Suna. Just what was Naruto doing to her? Is this who she really was without Shukaku?

"I have an idea." Naruto said cheerfully. He stepped down onto the water a soft glow separated him from the water. He was getting quite good at water walking. It was almost second nature at this point. Reaching up he grabbed gaara's dry hand with his own and led her further down the log. Before sitting down on the log. All but dragging her down with him. "See nice and dry."

"My butt's wet." Gaara observed without complaint. Naruto looked at her and then he began to smile in amusement which developed into chuckles. It was a slow start laugh building with each chuckle before it exploded into a roar of laughter.

Gaara was offended for all of a second. Worried she said something odd for two; she then realized what she had said. Before she smiled and began joining him in his laughter.

It was infectious; a bubbling disease that killed sadness and brought people together. Gaara vaguely wondered why nobody had ever tried to conquer the world with such laughter. It surely wouldn't be too hard, or at least much easier than force.

Naruto's laughter slowed as he heard Gaara's laughter. He looked endearingly at her, it was a sweet and raspy sound. A pleasant combination of coldness and warmth. Like coming into a warm cabin after a blizzard. Once again, Naruto found that he wanted to hear that sound as much as possible.

The laughter died down. And both let out a heavy sigh.

And then for Gaara, reality crashed down. She wanted to spend as much time with Naruto as she could. But this would likely be the only time they could do it. Perhaps, she was wrong about his dream? She knew what her duty was, to be the Kazekage… But what about his dream? Would he be able to follow her?

"Naruto." Gaara began slowly, she was fiddling with his thumb slightly. She instinctively gripped his hand oh so slightly tighter. "What are your plans for the future?" her shoulders slumped like she had just dropped a heavy load. Naruto tensed as though she had just given him the heavy load. He sighed looking to the skies noting the orange plushy clouds.

"Well. First thing I need to do is get Sasuke back. I made a promise to Sakura-chan. And he's kind of like my brother ya know?". The sun was getting low in the sky behind them. But there was still time before it set.

"Then after that." Naruto had an innate sense of dramatic timing. Or atlast he liked to think he did. "After that I become hokage. That way everybody will respect and acknowledge me."

"What about me…?" Probably the worst question to ever be asked on the first date. With the exception of Rock Lee who once asked a girl to marry him. Naruto looked at Gaara with widened eyes. She was squeezing his hand painfully tight.

"I'll figure something out. Besides you might get sick of me before you know it." Naruto asked attempting to defuse the situation. He didn't want the mood to be this heavy. He really didn't want it right now. This date was the only thing that was keeping his recent failure out of his mind.

"No." Gaara said suddenly, to what he had no idea. "It is your dream to become Hokage. It is something I know that you will achieve." Naruto didn't know it right then. But that was when he fell in love with Gaara. She believed in his dream, she believed in him. "And I'm going to become Kazekage…" she muttered

"That's great Gaara! we'll be able to bring peace to our villages!" Naruto declared happily. The idea of people not killing each other resonated in him deeply. Gaara released his hand, and held her own still slightly moist hand in her lap, clenching her fist.

"Indeed." Gaara said swallowing a lump in her throat. Her tear docs felt moist for the first time in years. She gritted her teeth.

"That's why for our villages, this stops after today..." Her knuckles were white. With Naruto she didn't have to fear what would happen if she fell asleep. With Naruto she was able to feel emotions that she had long since suppressed. But for her village, she would give that up. She would damn herself to those sleepless nights once again.

But Naruto wouldn't allow that.

"Nope." That simple word shocked and scared Gaara more than any other word she had heard. She looked deeply into his eyes to see them so full of conviction, it was slightly jarring. That gaze seemed like if he wanted the world he could go ahead and take it; and nothing would stop him.

"It doesn't matter what anybody else says. Gaara-chan. If I am. If this is something that you want. Then I will break every rule in the book to make it happen. That's the promise of a lifetime believe it!" That was the second time he'd made a promise today.

"The chances of my village allowing it are practically zero" Gaara said softly. She was touched by his words. But she didn't want to offer him false hope.

"So my chances aren't Zero?" Naruto asked his smile growing wide. "That's as good as one hundred percent!"

It was called the Will of Fire, because even the smallest of sparks can ignite it in another. It was an infectious thing that if left unchecked would spread through the world like wildfire.

And so Gaara found herself to be one of the few ninja outside of Konoha to be infected by the Will of Fire. Because the Will of Fire with in Naruto burns brighter than the sun.

She had tried to remove his false hope. Instead with a few words. Naruto had removed her fears and left with them hope. It was not a lie. It was not some false comfort for her to rely on in desperate times. It was a promise. The promise of a lifetime.

Gaara would hold and nurture her small Will of Fire. She would believe in Naruto.

With a sudden flurry of sand Gaara grabbed a hold of Naruto. He yelped in surprise as his right arm was dragged out behind Gaara's back and his butt was lifted oh so slightly off the log. He was dragged towards Gaara.

A short quick motion and the gap between them was practically non-existent. He found his arm wrapped around her waist, his hand resting on her slight hips. She leaned into him, resting her red-haired head on his shoulder; a soft wind blew by

"Thank you." Gaara said with a small smile. And there in the middle of the forest in Naruto's embrace, a single tear, the first tear in many years slowly slid down her face. She allowed herself to drift off to sleep once again. She did have roughly seven years of sleep to catch up on.

Naruto just smiled as he held onto Gaara staring at the sky as it slowly turned color. It would be starting soon. It was why he brought her out here to the middle of the forest. Naruto wasn't naturally romantic, Shizune had told him about this spot. A boy had once taken her out here on a date during the summer. She remembered it more than she remembered the boy.

Slowly the silence began to fade as the nocturnal insects began to light up. A group of toads also appeared. Was that… gamakichi? It was what was he doing here? Who were the other toads? What were they doing?

A rock gently hit Naruto in the head. It got his attention as he whipped his head around. He looked forward with half lidded eyes at the culprit.

Jiraiya was standing there in the forest his hands making an "O.K." symbol while he winked at Naruto. Naruto simply raised an eyebrow as Jiraiya slowly vanished from sight. He waited a moment before turning to look at Gaara. She was asleep oh so softly in his arms. It was almost time.

He heard the toads start their croaking. It was rough at first, but then quickly took on a more melodic sound while being complemented by the sounds of a thousand insects chirping. Then the lights came. A soft glow from the base of the pond illuminated the whole place. Shizune had said the place glowed but he wasn't expecting this.

Then he saw it. Small toads swimming in the water making some kind of glowing lantern. And he smiled. Jiraiya wasn't half bad after all.

The insect began to fly glowing in the darkening sky. And Naruto knew what he had to do.

Slowly letting go of Gaara making doubly sure that she wouldn't fall over he stepped down onto the water.

"Gaara-chan." He spoke softly but loudly. Her eyes opened slowly before blinking twice and immediately locked onto his. She wasn't that into her sleep so she'll forgive him this time.

"May I have this dance?" He held a small hand out towards her. He only had a vague notion of dancing thanks to an impromptu mission with Jiraiya, but that was more than most shinobi would ever have.

Gaara looked around in stunned silence. Naruto marveled at the way the light brought out the color of her eyes; she was even more beautiful.  
Gaara on the other hand looked around at the scenery. She had never come across something so beautiful in her life. And the fact that she was experiencing it with him made this the best day of her life.

"I don't know how." Gaara blushed slightly as she slowly took Naruto's hand. She slid down onto the water from the log. Her sand stopped the water from touching her feet and she found herself floating an inch above the water staring right into Naruto's eyes. Naruto chuckled,

"That's okay follow my lead." Naruto said with a smile. It was just like the lady he had to dance with during that mission.

Jiraiya watched with a smile as he saw Naruto lead Gaara through the dance that he had taught the boy. It was a simple enough four step dance. He had a feeling that if he wrote this down and put it in one of his books that it would be a fan favorite scene. But he couldn't do that to Minato and Kushina and he wasn't going to do that to Naruto and Gaara.

"They remind me of them you know?" Jiraiya said as he felt Tsunade appear beside him. She sighed,

"There must be something in Namikaze blood that makes them fall in love with red-haired foreign ninja that have a demon in them." Tsunade said with a twitching eyebrow. She then smiled at the duo, "The toads your touch?"

"And the lights." Jiraiya said softly, "Dance too, had a feeling that brat would end up benefiting from knowing how to dance." He hadn't turned to face Tsunade yet. He was lost in the past as he watched Naruto twirl Gaara oh so gently over the water.

"You know if your dates were as nice as this I might have actually gone out with you once." Tsunade said with a small smile. Watching those two was like taking a trip back in time. Jiraiya shifted his gaze and looked into Tsunade's eyes at that statement.

"Who's to say for you they wouldn't be, Tsunade-hime?" She wanted to punch that smile off his face.

"Naruto." Gaara said, after dancing for an unknown amount of time. The moon was full above their heads and the water beneath their feet glowed a soft hue. It sounded like their toad band was beginning to get tired as well.

"What is it Gaara-chan?" Naruto asked stopping their dancing movements. They had been doing the same four steps over and over again. But neither one of them cared about that.

"I'm tired."

Naruto smiled at that. He was feeling tired too, and he hoped that being tired would mean they would be sleeping in the same bed again.

"Can I stay with you?" Gaara's voice was a distant thing as she was already beginning to feel the lulls of sleep once again. She let out a soft squeak as Naruto quite literally swept her off her feet.

"Of course Gaara-chan!" Naruto shouted excitedly as he sped off back towards Konoha. He had never been so excited to go to bed before.

Gaara resisted the urge to call him an idiot. Gripping his shirt tightly she began to drift to sleep. It came so easy to her now. The thought of accidentally falling asleep once she was away from Naruto terrified her. But she would be strong. At least until the next time she ran into Naruto.

Naruto had briefly considered taking Gaara back to the hospital. But that place was creepy. He had vaguely considered finding out where Gaara stayed. But Temari and Kankuro both scared the piss out of him. So that only left his apartment. His messy unsanitary boy smelling apartment.

Never before had Naruto wished that he kept his apartment clean.

When he arrived at his home he saw note on the door as he slowly maneuvered Gaara around so he could grab the noted.

In the girliest hand writing he knew it simply read.

"You owe me." ~ S.H.

Opening the door Naruto came in too see his apartment nearly spotless. He made a mental note to thank Sakura later.

He quickly navigated his way to his room Gaara's petite frame still in his arms. He opened his door to his bedroom. His sheets were clean, all the garbage on the floor was gone, there was no random boxers. It was simply clean. And still his judging by the giant ramen poster near the bed.

He really needed to thank Sakura later.

Gently setting Gaara down on his bed he began his nightly ritual. It mostly involved brushing his teeth and changing into his sleep wear. He wondered if Gaara would be okay by herself for just a few minutes.

When he returned he saw Gaara's gourd sitting off in the corner. He vaguely wondered where that was the whole day. He saw Gaara sitting up in his bed. Her cold green eyes wide with fright.

"Where were you?" Gaara asked. The fear in her voice palpable. She was very good at knowing fear. She could taste it and smell it on others. She could taste her own fear. It made her stomach twist.

"Brushing my teeth" Naruto said sitting on the bed next to her. She slowly reached out to touch his arm. As though appearing to make sure that he was real.

"It's dangerous to leave me while I'm sleeping." Gaara said flatly getting an apologetic smile out of Naruto. She was so relieved that he wasn't some figment. That this whole thing wasn't some vile construct of Shukaku to get her to drop the guard she had so carefully been building up. She stood up suddenly. Grabbing one of Naruto's shirts and walked to his bathroom. "Remember that in the morning."

Naruto chuckled and began to make himself comfortable in his bed. While his bed wasn't the biggest, it could fit two. But he had a feeling he was going to be used as a teddy bear tonight. He was becoming surprisingly okay with it. Not that he was a teddy bear. His manly pride would not permit such a title

Gaara walked in a few minutes later. Naruto would never have thought that seeing a girl wearing one of his shirts would make him so happy. It was an odd sight. While he wasn't the biggest boy. Gaara wasn't the biggest girl either so she was comfortably floating in one of his T-shirts. She sat down next to him. He could smell the mint mouthwash on her breath.

Gaara was nervous. Before Naruto had been asleep and completely unaware that she was sleeping next to him. Now she had literally asked him. She had his permission to sleep next to him. So why was she so nervous? Would he put her arms around her again? She hoped so. Though she only got to enjoy it for the briefest of moments before that blond Hokage forced them apart.

"You think too much." Naruto said, slowly pulling her down next to him. Gaara could only blush as she got her wish with the arms. She quickly found her face buried in Naruto's chest. Her bare legs tangled with his pajama'd legs. She wiggled her arms around Naruto's torso and hugged him tight as he draped his arm around her.

Good night Gaara-chan."

"Good night Naruto." Sleep took them both within moments; the world going to a peaceful sleep, finally giving solace to two lost souls.

* * *

In the morning. Naruto awoke to a Gaara less bed. A simple note was taped to his forehead. He also felt like his nose had been kissed.

The writing was crude and simple. Nothing unnecessary in it's calligraphy.

"Naruto. I have taken one of your Shirts and Jackets with me. If you wish to have them back come to Suna." ~ Gaara.

She didn't really need to sign it.

 **AN: Hello again! I'm back I got a beta reader.** **Samnamikaze23. He's a great friendly dude who has a few stories you should check out as well. He's making sure I don't have a Naruto turn into a dragon and fly Gaara off to Happily ever after. Oh and he's fixing my Grammar. That precious precious Grammar.**

 **Anyways I got like One or Two chapters left before I Finish this fic though. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on any fight scenes in this fic. There will be a bit of turmoil at some point though.**

 **I decided I'm going to be doing an epilogue for this fic once I'm done with it. I got like 150+ followers so I figure I owe you guys as much as I can give for this fic.**

 **Next update is going to be for The Ninja That Fell Through Time. I'm probably going to be rewriting the first chapter. It was kind of a spur of the moment writing anyways so there's a few bits I'm not happy with.**

 **Anyways I'm going to put Kurama Goes Through Puberty on the back burner for a bit. largely because the 10k Word chapters are burning me out. Need to write that fic slower.**

 **Anyways until next time! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Blossoming desert flowers and Naru-chan

"Okay Gaara what gives?" Kankuro finally asked. They had left Konoha two hours ago. And Gaara kept looking down at an orange wrapped cloth and was smiling; legitimately smiling. Quite frankly it was creeping Kankuro out. This was because from his memories, whenever Gaara smiled or showed any pleasing emotion for that matter, bodies piled up. "Why do you keep smiling, and what are you holding?"

Gaara blinked at her older brother, her face becoming a stoic mask rather quickly. She squeezed the orange parcel that she had been given by Naruto. Well technically she stole it from him, but she doubted that Naruto would care. So she considered it a gift from him.

A precious gift from Naruto; she should get him something.

But what would be a good gift for Naruto? She doubted that he would be able to wear any of her clothes. She smiled at the thought. A soft warm thing that had long ago melted her once frozen heart.

"You're doing it again!" Kankuro said gruffly, his eye twitching. Seriously, this was creeping him out. Gaara's smile was instantly replaced by a frown at her brother's words. Temari smirked,

"Gaara had a date yesterday." She said in a practically singing voice.

Kankuro blinked twice, 'Huh?' This was insane. "Wait, what?" he asked calmly not believing his ears.

"Yup!" Temari giggled, "She had a date."

"No seriously what did she do." Kankuro asked not believing it for one second; now he was going to understand if she killed someone. But a date, that's ridiculous.

Gaara scowled, prompting a light laugh from Temari. "Seriously, she actually went on one."

"Really? With one of those leaf losers?!" Kankuro asked his mouth gaping in shock. Realization hit him; his scary little sister, went on a date with someone, and was smiling. "Wait Gaara went on a date?!"

"You are kinda slow on the uptake aren't you?" Temari groaned, honestly even she could understand Kankuro's befuddled face, the good thing was that she knew earlier.

"Temari went on one too." Gaara said flatly keeping her gaze straight ahead. It really didn't matter what her brother thought about Naruto. Well it kind of did, she hoped her brother got along with Naruto to some degree. She hugged Naruto's jacket slightly tighter, she had made sure to empty the pockets when she took it. She didn't even know why she took it. Probably to make him come get it.

She doubted that she would give it back to him even if he asked. It was hers now.

Just like he was.

Gaara's face flushed a tinge of red. She could feel every spot he touched her burn at the simple thought of him again. Which was now most of her arms, legs, and face. She never wanted to stop burning.

Kankuro just kept gaping in shock at his two sisters. Just a trip to the Leaf and they had already gone on dates! Why did it seem like he was missing out on something? He couldn't even muster up a word.

"It wasn't a date!" Temari shouted at Gaara then glared at Kankuro. Temari's cheeks were also tinged a slight pink. It wasn't like she liked that idiot leaf boy anyways, he was such a smart ass. "But why don't you tell us about your date with Naruto, Gaara." Temari asked hoping to change the conversation away from her own activities. She didn't want Kankuro to know that she had spent hours yesterday watching the clouds pass with that idiot.

"He took me to eat ramen." Gaara said slowly. The beef ramen she had was good. But her favorite part of it was the Narutomakis. For several reasons, only one of which pertained to the name.

"Uhuh." Kankuro could make out. Gaara continued, "And then we walked around the village for a little bit and talked."

"Ho, what'd you two talk about?" Temari asked. Gaara didn't face her sister, but she could feel Temari's eyebrows move up and down in a suggestive manner.

Gaara paused for a moment; what did they talk about? She honestly couldn't remember. She remembered being with Naruto in the village. She remembered the glares of the villagers. She remembered the feel of his hand in the village. And her asking to go somewhere more private.

"You don't remember do you?" Temari asked sounding disappointed.

"He held my hand and smiled a lot." Gaara said proudly to which Temari sighed, she really wanted details. To Gaara though, that was the important part of their city walk. The hands, the touching, and the smiles.

Gaara glanced down at right hand. It burned, and she gave it a gentle squeeze smiling at the effect. Just what had Naruto done to her, she could see his shit eating grin staring at her knowingly from afar.

"And after that?" Temari asked giddily cutting her from her thoughts. Temari knew Gaara didn't come to their room last night. That meant that her little sister more than likely slept in Naruto's bed again.

"The villagers glared at me. I think they still resent us for attacking their village." Gaara admitted sadly. "So he took me to a lake somewhere in the forest. I told him I was going to become Kazekage, he told me he was going to become Hokage."

"So you're going to accept their offer?" Temari asked as an afterthought, implying the offer that the sand elders had given Gaara a week prior. Gaara nodded her head exactly once. "Shame that he's set on becoming Hokage then. I doubt you'll be able to spend more time with him then." Temari sighed. The one guy that could let Gaara sleep, was of course going to be out of her reach.

"He told me not to worry about that. So I won't." Gaara's smile was genuine enough to effect Temari. Temari looked stunned at the confident look on her face. It was really a good thing that Naruto came into her life, she knew it at that moment. What they couldn't do for her throughout in Suna, Naruto had done in days.

Kankuro had regained most of his bearings and spat out, a scowl on his face, "Pfft. That loser has about as much chance of becoming Hokage as I have of becoming Kazekage." Temari glared at her little brother, but stopped when she heard Gaara's soft chuckle.

"As long as his chances aren't zero, it's as good as one hundred percent." Gaara quoted Naruto, a fond smile on her face. "Besides he gave me a promise of a lifetime." She clutched Naruto's jacket once more. "I'm going to believe in him."

Temari smiled fondly, now she wanted to meet Naruto properly to thank him, he really changed their lives and definitely, Suna's. Who knows what might have happened to the village under a bloodthirsty Gaara. But now, she didn't need to worry about it.

"Still" Kankuro sighed. "For a loser like him to become Hokage, the village would have to be pretty desperate."

"Kankuro, that 'loser' beat me in a fight, and I'm about to become Kazekage." Gaara said flatly. Temari laughed out. Kankuro's eyes widened slightly, and was silent for a while after that. Gaara smiled at his silence. She had given him something to think about.

XXXX

Tsunade sighed, it had been six months since Naruto and Jiraiya had left the village for their training. She already missed the idiots. Fortunately, Sakura was proving entertaining enough. She had pushed the girl harder than she did Shizune and by a far margin. Perhaps she pushed the girl unfairly hard, but Sakura had not only stuck with it, she was excelling at it.

But that wasn't why she was sighing. She was sighing because right now, she wasn't a teacher, she wasn't a doctor; she was the Hokage at the moment. The sand wanted something and they had sent an emissary probably to do with their announcement as of who the next Kazekage was. As well as the remainder of the details about their alliance.

"Tsunade-sama." Shizune called out from the door. "The Emissary from Sand is here."

"Let them in Shizune." Tsunade called out. She was desperate for that Sake bottle, she wanted it so bad. She rained down curses on Shizune for hiding her stash, I mean who does that.

Shizune quickly walked in with Temari and Shikamaru walking close behind. Tsunade had made Shikamaru the sand emissary's official escort. Largely because he had the most experience in dealing with them and was smart enough not to mess anything up. She shivered had she given Naruto a job of that sort; that was calamity waiting to happen.

"Hokage-sama." Temari said with a low bow. "I am Temari of the Desert here and I'm here on behalf of Suna to inform you that my sister Gaara has been selected as the fifth Kazekage." Temari pulled out three scrolls. "I am also to deliver these three scrolls to you."

"Well let's have them." Tsunade said forgoing formality. Temari was easy to deal with, reminded her of herself at times and not because of the blond hair. Temair quickly handed the scrolls to Tsunade.

"The green scroll are details of the alliance between our two villages as well as a um… proposal of sorts." Temari said with a light blush. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that, okay now she wanted to know. "The red scroll is an invitation to Gaara's coronation as kazekage, while the blue one is a personal request from the future Godaime kazekage."

"Alright then." Tsunade said breaking the seal on the Alliance scroll first. "Is there anything else Temari?" The blond sand girl jumped at the casual tone.

"Yes, I have another scroll to deliver to Naruto Uzumaki and I'm also supposed to wait for your responses to the invitation and request." Temari said firmly, her back straight. Tsunade made her nervous. She was talking to a woman that could level a mountain with a single punch! Sure she could clear cut a forest with her fan but crumbling a mountain was so much more impressive. More impressive.

"Sadly, Naruto is on a three year mission." Tsunade said frowning. "Though I can attempt to send him the scroll during the next report." Temari frowned for a moment before nodding and placing a second blue scroll on the desk.

Tsunade commented, looking it over. "I'll give you my answer to the request later in the day, but I believe I'll be able to attend the coronation." Tsunade offered with a smile. "Now have Shikamaru escort you to someplace nice."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered as he bowed following Temari out of the door.

Tsunade skimmed over the alliance scroll. Looking for anything that caught her eye. She didn't want to read it in detail. That was for someone like Shizune and Kakashi to do. Something caught her eye towards the end of it.

 _"In order to further solidify the bonds between our villages, the council of elders of Suna requests a dual political marriage. We offer Temari of the desert to be wed to any citizen of Konoha you desire, while we wish to wed Naruto Uzumaki to our future Kazekage, Gaara of the Desert."_

Tsunade laughed. "Gaara certainly works fast." She said out loud. Waving shizune over to read the paragraph as well. Shizune's eyes widened. It was comical, the Hokage and her assistant giggling like high school girls.

"Oh my, are you going to accept?" Shizune asked hugging Tonton tightly to her chest.

"Only if Naruto and Temari agree to it, but I doubt that either will do it. Those two love their villages too much." Tsunade explained as she rolled the scroll back up. Everything else seemed to be in order.

The red scroll for Gaara's invitation was straightforward and formal. 'You are formally invited to attend the coronation of….' Tsunade closed that scroll quickly. She smiled as she began reading the Gaara's personal request.

 _"Dear Lady Tsunade, Hokage of Konoha. I Gaara of the desert would like to request that should you accept the invitation to my Coronation you bring Naruto Uzumaki in addition to your entourage. Should you be unable to attend my Coronation then I would like to request a personal mission of have Naruto Uzumaki attend the event. Should that not be possible then I will still request a mission for him to come to Suna as soon as possible."_

 _"You are no doubt aware of the relationship me and Naruto have, as you are also part of the cause of it. For which I thank you deeply. You are also aware that Shukaku the demon inside of me does not allow me to sleep. The sole exception to that is when I am near Naruto. That is why I am requesting this. No secret plot to steal your villages Jinchuuriki, or future Hokage. Just a simple need for sleep. It has been six months. And as you are no doubt aware preparing for the position of Kage is rather tiresome."_

 _"With utmost gratitude. Gaara of the Desert Godaime Kazekage"_

Tsunade smile reading it. "Well it's going to be a long two and a half years for Gaara." Tsunade let out a laugh as she closed the scroll. She eyed the third scroll with a deep hunger a message to Naruto huh... Shizune gasped as Tsunade grabbed the scroll and began opening it.

"Lady Tsunade! That's Naruto's private mail!" Shizune said stomping her feet. "It's rude for you to go through something private like that."

"Hey I'm curious, and I'd hardly call mail between Ninja from two different villages private. And besides, why are you beside me if you do not want to read it." Tsunade smiled. Shizune had conflicted face before it shifted to one of resignation. Protocols be damned, this was her little brother on the line here. Tsunade chuckled and opened the scroll and stared at the four words that were written inside.

 _"Naruto, I'm tired. ~ Gaara."_

Tsunade howled in laughter to which Shizune chuckled lightly, smiling fondly.

XXXX

Leaf ninja were very generous. Gaara mused as the ninja from Konoha left, they had stayed for her coronation. And all four of them except one, had brought her a gift. From the Hokage herself, a bottle of Sake. Tsunade said that because she was Kazekage, she could lower the drinking age if she wanted, if it existed in Suna.

Gaara didn't like the idea of drinking. She liked being in control of herself. If she ever wanted to not be in control of herself all she had to do was stop resisting Shukaku. So the Sake would sit unused in the corner somewhere.

Shizune, Tsunade's assistant, had given her a set of books, one of which was on how to cook ramen. It seemed even people in Konoha were trying to set her and Naruto up. She really didn't mind it. At least the ninja in Konoha were more concerned about her happiness than the political importance of a marriage between her and Naruto.

Sakura, the current apprentice of the Hokage. Sakura had gotten Gaara a large orange teddy bear with a yellow swirl on its stomach. It had glassy blue buttons for eyes. Sakura's logic was simple and innocent. She knew that Gaara slept well while Naruto was around. And the stuffed bear reminded Sakura of Naruto a bit. What on earth was she going to do with a stuffed bear nearly the same size she was?

Kakashi, Tsunade's designated body guard,was the exception. Kakashi hadn't gotten Gaara anything. Which was fine, because she didn't expect anything in the first place. He was the only Konoha ninja that wasn't a gift giving freak.

So why was there a box sitting on her bed when she entered her room? Who put it there? Going through it, she noted a note on the box.

 _"I understand that you and one of cute little genin are attempting a relationship of sorts. I support this fully. As does Naruto's other sensei Jiraiya. He asked me to find some way to give these to you he believed they may be helpful to you and Naruto, and I must say I am quite jealous._

 _Kakashi Hatake, jonin of Konoha._

 _P.S. Do not let Tsunade find out who gave this to you. Our lives are in your hands."_

If Gaara had eyebrows they would be raised at the odd note. She would have preferred if he hadn't given her a gift. Opening the box, Gaara saw another set of books. She did have more time than most people to read.

"Icha… Icha?" Gaara pondered innocently, grabbing an orange book from the box. She flipped to the first page.

XXXX

Gaara flopped down onto her bed face panting into the largely unused and still soft mattress. A layer of dust, from lack of use flew up from the covers as she made impact. It had been two months since she had laid down on the thing.

"Two years, five months, twenty six days, fourteen hours, fifteen minutes and, six… seven seconds." Gaara sputtered out the time since she had last seen Naruto. She knew he was away on a three year mission, and she was making sure that the Hokage knew that she required Naruto to arrive at Suna at the soonest possible moment.

It wasn't exactly true that Gaara couldn't sleep without Naruto. She could just get a good night's sleep with him. She could sleep next to him as long as she wanted without fear of Shukaku breaking free. Before, she alone she could maybe get fifteen minutes every few months.

But now she had a secret weapon that allowed her to sleep four hours every two months. It was a mere pittance of how much she was going to sleep when she got her hands on Naruto once again. Though there were other things she wanted to do with him as well. Something involved the bed but not sleeping in it.

She blushed.

Gaara had decided about a year ago that the next time she saw her blond ninja that she was going to kiss him. No, that was wrong. They were going to share a kiss. The places he touched her still burned with a comfortable heat at the thought of him. It made her spine tingle in her lower back. She wanted her whole body to burn.

"Naru-chan." Gaara called out to her secret sleep weapon, turning her head towards the chair where she kept it. She sat up and gasped, Naru-chan, the large stuffed bear Sakura had given her was sitting in it's chair. Naked, she had dressed it up in Naruto's Jacket and shirt after her Coronation when Tsunade had told her about Naruto's training trip. It was an act of desperation. But it did the job oddly enough.

But now Naru-chan wasn't Naru-chan without the jacket and shirt. Someone was going to be killed today

Frantically Gaara got out of bed and began frantically searching her room. She pulled clothes out of her dresser. Scattering them on the ground with reckless abandon.

"No, no, no, no!" Gaara began shouting frantically. She quickly darted out of her room colliding with Temari.

"Gaara? What's wrong?" Temari asked concerned for her normally stoic sister.

"Naru-chan is naked." Gaara said completely serious. Only Temari and Kankuro knew about Gaara's secret weapon. And she aimed to keep it that way. Temair's eyes widened.

"Oh that's what that was." Temari said looking away from Gaara.

"Was what, Temari?" Gaara asked the sand began to fly around her. Someone really was going to die today.

"I saw Kankuro, with something orange early today, he said he was…" Temari didn't get the chance to finish. As Gaara had practically flown out the door in a swirl of sand. "Good luck little bro I think you're going to need it."

Kankuro smiled to himself as he eyed his project for his little sister. He had just finished it and it was perfect. Now he just had to give it to her tomorrow!

His door was blown off its hinges, destroying one of his prototypes. Unless his sister wanted her gift now that is.

"Where is it… Kankuro?" Gaara said with pure malice in her eyes. She was still very good at scaring people when she needed to. And even Kankuro who knew that his sister would never kill him still feared for his life. Especially right now. He could see the white of her iris all the way around her pupil.

Kankuro gulped,

"I uhh happy birthday!" Kankuro said presenting his present to Gaara. Gaara blinked as she stared at what was before her. Her brother had made a human sized puppet. A few good inches taller than her. Not exactly impressive considering she was shorter than most. But it had blond hair with soulless blue eyes. And painted on whisker marks on her cheeks. It was wearing Naruto's clothes.

Her eye twitched.

"Presenting, Naru-chan 2.0!" Kankuro said proudly. "Complete with automatic hugging action!" He pressed a wooden panel located somewhere on the contraption. And it sprang to life, its arms and legs forming to rather large circles that could be mistaken for a hug… of death. "So what do you think?"

The furious sand around her died down as she walked towards the puppet a deep frown on her face. Gaara wordlessly removed the Jacket and shirt from the puppet before turning around sharply.

"Burn it." Gaara commanded as she exited the room.

"But I worked so hard on it." Kankuro pouted. Gaara turned one last time looking at him. Kankuro gulped,

"Burn it."

"Y… Yes!"

XXXX

Three years, two days, eighteen hours, four minutes and twenty seconds.

That's how long it had been since Gaara had last seen Naruto uzumaki. Staring up into the cold night sky of Suna she wondered how much he had changed. He was probably much taller than her. Probably stronger too. He probably grew up as well, she certainly had.

She was a petite little girl when she first met Naruto. Now she was a slender young woman. She was still short, barely an inch pass five feet. A fact that made dealing with certain old ninja twice as difficult as they needed to be. She had developed gentle womanly curves on her lithe frame as well.

Due to her flowing Kazekage robes she appeared to simply be a straight blob. Not that Gaara ever tried to flaunt her slender frame. That was for only Naruto, if he pleased.

Her most noticed feature was her hair. It had only grown to a deeper red over the years. Moving from blood to a soft desert rose red. True to herself, she made promise when Naruto complimented her hair all those years ago she hadn't cut her hair. It was a mistake she lived with daily. The dry desert hair made hair frizz out of control, there was a reason why most Suna women kept their hair short.

But due to her lack of sleep Gaara had plenty of time to maintain her hair. A ritual that she had begun to enjoy. It was odd, caring about something so feminine. But, Naruto had liked her hair, so she was going to make sure that he still liked her hair when he got back. Right now, her hair was done in a long braid that reached the small of her back. However she commonly wore it over the front of her shoulder, the extra distance made the braid end just below her bosom. She liked to play with it.

Her lack of sleep also gave her plenty of time to read the books she had gotten from Kakashi. She knew how to make ramen well now, at Least according to Matsuri. She was Gaara's one time student and one of her few friends. Matsuri was also the only other person to know about Gaara's other literature. A hobby they both shared, it was truly divine.

"Any day now Naruto." Gaara said twirling her braid. Temari was in Konoha at this very moment, preparing for the chunin exams as well as keeping an eye out for the future Hokage of Konoha. She was under express orders to inform the blond just how desperate Gaara was to see him.

Gaara vaguely wondered if that wouldn't be evident by the twenty three scrolls likely sitting in Naruto's mail box. All from her. One of which threatened his immediate death if the first thing he did when he returned, was not to come see her.

She froze. Someone was attacking her village. All thoughts of Naruto vanished from her mind. All her desires for sleep were replaced with a fierceness to protect her village.

She was the Kazekage after all.

Three years, two days, eighteen hours, fifty two minutes and elven seconds.

 **AN: Once again Special thanks to Samnamikaze23. I probably overwork the poor guy with how frequently I update stuff. I honestly think he's been betaing something of mine everyday this week. So go give him the same love you give me! He's a big part of this story as well**

 **You guys were sad when I said how soon I was going to be ending this series, so I came up with an extra bonus chapter to give you guys. Which is this one you just read. Going to have to wait for that first kiss just an extra little bit**

 **Next update for Naruto is Not a Teddy Bear will be a while… which a while for me is about a week or so. Need to give Sam a break I think.**

 **Next story update will be for Kurama Goes Through Puberty. I mentioned I was thinking about discontinuing it but got a big wave of support for it. After that It'll be a toss up between Naruto is Not a Teddy Bear and The Ninja That Fell Through Time.**

 **But It'll probably be for Naruto is Not A Teddy Bear, because I have an actual storyline written for it. The Ninja That Fell Through Time is basically plotless at the moment.**

 **Anyways see you guys next time! (I almost made it through an AN without saying Anyways dammit)**


	6. Reunions and departures

Suddenly becoming aware. Suddenly becoming aware that you very much exist, was something Gaara had only done once before. The first time was when she first discovered the effect Naruto had on her. And now for a second time, Gaara was aware that she existed.

Her hand felt heavy; she eyed it curiously. At least she had hands. That was better than not. She looked around, noting the white void she was surrounded by; she saw herself, alone. So very alone. It was a feeling beyond crushing. She was going to be eternally and forever alone.

Her right hand moved to her face, tears. How long had it been since she cried, had she ever. She felt the cold tears streaming unstopped down her face to her lips. They were salty and bitter.

She looked hopelessly to the void. Naruto, was he alright? What was he doing now? Where was he?

Just when she had finally made a connection, it was cruelly ripped from her hands. Was it fate? Was this destiny?

"Gaara-chan!" A voice shook her reality the void she felt slowly dissipating. Her nightmare of being alone shifted into a dream. She felt a familiar calmness set in around her, a hopeful gaze spotted on her face. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she sighed in liberation. She knew who it was. But, she wouldn't smile until she saw his smile. Gaara turned to face him, noting his blond hair and grin. He had grown. Even more handsome, taller. She smiled at him.

"Gaara-chan." Naruto spoke her name with happiness. Naruto was seen besides her sitting on the void. He was with her; that was what mattered. They didn't care where they were. Even if they were within the grasp of death, they were together, that was what counted.

To Naruto that was the only thing besides her that existed. He stood up removing his hand from her shoulder. She stared at him in awe looking at his hand, offered to her like a child.

She took it.

"Gaara-chan!" She heard Naruto say with his voice, sounding clearer despite the ringing in her ears. Gaara's eyes shot open and was blinded by the bright blue sky. But she kept them open. Her mouth pulled into a smile, all on its own. She blinked once, letting her eyes adjust as she stared at Naruto Uzumaki.

She could feel his hand at her back holding her up while his other gripped her hand. It was close enough to a hug. He was smiling at her now, his hand gripping hers. The touch said everything. Sorry for not being there, sorry for leaving you, sorry for letting you die.

Gaara choose then and there to act on the promise she'd been keeping to herself for years now. Her free hand, the one on the outside of their two bodies found itself behind Naruto's neck. She wasn't quite strong enough to pull herself all the way up to him. Nor was she strong enough to bring him down to her. So they met in the middle.

The greatest sense of existence that Gaara ever felt rushed through her. This wasn't the cute naive kiss of innocents. This was the passion filled kiss of youth. Their lips were hard and chapped prickling against one another. But they were oh so soft. Oh so perfect.

The world fell away from them. She was no longer Kazekage. He was no longer a ninja from a different village. There was no Akatsuki and they weren't ninja. She was Gaara, he was Naruto, and they were together. Closed out to the world.

The kiss was a promise. A promise of more, a promise of so much more than any words could hope to describe. To Gaara, it was a reminder that what she felt for Naruto wasn't just her clinging to the first person to make her feel, it was real. To Naruto, it was a confirmation that after all this was over, after Akatsuki was dealt with, after Sasuke was back in Konoha that he could have real happiness. Their hopes and dreams were poured into that kiss.

Slowly Gaara pulled away rather contented with her first kiss. She rather liked the completely stupefied look on his face. His half lidded eyes blinked once, twice to regain his composure. Before that stupid grin broke onto his face.

"Wow." That was all he could say. All he needed to say right then. Everything else was said in that kiss.

"Yea… wow." Gaara said smiling back at him.

"Ahem." That was the sound to get their attention. The sound that made them both realize that they weren't the only ones around. It came from Temari, clearing her throat. The eldest of the sand siblings was standing before them an incredibly amused smile on her face. Behind her were the shinobi of the sand. Looking with gaping mouths at their Kazekage.

"Well… shit." Kankuro could make out.

Gaara's face turned a bright red. A deeper red than anybody save Naruto had ever seen her turn. She sucked in her upper lip, looking at ninja before her. They were crying, they were celebrating, because she was alive. They were her ninja. They came to try and save her. And they were rewarded by a show of her kissing some leaf shinobi.

"They all came to try and help you, Gaara." Temari said taking the final few steps towards Gaara and Naruto. Temari extended a hand towards her prone sister. A look of pride and relief on her face. Gaara took the hand allowing Temari to pull her up and out of Naruto's grip. She stood for a second.

Naruto didn't let her fall. Her legs were steady and she found herself using his shoulder to stand up right. Who knew coming back to life would be so tiring?

"Thank you Naruto." Gaara allowed herself to lean on him just a bit more than she needed to. A small innocent enough gesture.

The realization that the honored grandmother Chiyo's life was given so that Gaara could live did sadden her. But when Sakura told her what Chiyo's last words were Gaara couldn't help but smile. She would make sure the dream came true.

Chiyo's words filtered through, "This is for the world of peace that you and Gaara can make with love, instead of the world of hatred my generation left you with."

One look at Naruto, the boy turned man that had dragged her out of the darkness and into light. And Gaara knew that if anybody could do it, it would be Naruto. He had the undeniable presence that would make the impossible possible.

He was really taller now. It only bothered Gaara slightly, as it would be much more difficult to kiss while they were both standing. She'd have to climb him ever so slightly. Or drag him down to her level. Neither of which would be too hard. Just slightly annoying.

Gaara's pride as Kazekage forced her to walk. She couldn't run at high speeds right now. Her body was simply drained. Considering she was dead just a few hours ago, she would say she was doing fine. She kept wandering to and away from Naruto. He kept making her knees weak when he smiled at her. And she kept feeling the temptation to curl up and fall asleep.

"No one will think any less of you." Temari's voice shocked Gaara out of her half-asleep stupor. Gaara looked at her smiling sister, there was a bit of mirth in her eyes, but there was also happiness. Behind Temari was Matsuri making obscene gestures with her hands while pointing at Naruto. Gaara had no idea that you could act out an entire scene from Icha Icha with just your hands.

Several other ninja were also smiling at her. Yes there was mirth, yes they were going to tease her. But in each of their eyes were admiration and companionship. Gaara was vaguely wondering if every ninja in Konoha and Suna was trying to get her and Naruto together.

Gaara sighed in defeat and guided herself closer to the blond ninja. He had saved her twice now. She needed to return that favor in her own Gaara way. He smiled as she drew near to him. It was fortunate that it was so easy for her to make him smile. She tugged on his sleeve.

"Naruto." Gaara began her eyes already drooping. "I'm tired." She was vaguely aware of the fact that Naruto had swept her off her feet and was holding her bridal style. Her head lulled as she began to fall asleep. She saw Matsuri and Sakura giving her a subtle thumbs up. She heard Rock Lee shout about youth.

"Rest up Gaara-chan, we'll get you home soon." Naruto said smiling down at her. For once, Gaara was quite happy with how small she was. She wouldn't be such a burden to Naruto and he'd be able to carry her for a while. It was relieving

"Thank you." and just like that, Gaara was asleep in Naruto's arms once again. It only took him three years. Jerk.

'Anytime, Gaara-chan.' Naruto smiled down at the sleeping redhead in his arms. She had become cuter it seemed. Like some redheaded sand chipmunk. She was different and yet the same. There was less shyness in what she did. Less innocent curiosity. Especially if he thought about that kiss.

That kiss was something Naruto wanted to do over and over and over and over and over again. Naruto's mind drifted to the scrolls in his bag. He kept a few of his favorites from Gaara, including the one that threatened his immediate death should he not come visit her. It was rather sweet.

In a murderous psycho kind of way.

"If you hurt her I'll kick your ass." Kankuro said as he walked within shoulder bumping distance of Naruto. Naruto had been wondering when Kankuro was going to finally speak his mind. He'd nearly made it scot free without having to deal with him. He had nothing against Kankuro. He just knew what was coming. It was a rare bit of foresight on Naruto's part but he was quite good at seeing patterns. Eventually.

"You're fifth on the list." Naruto replied rather dryly. He shrugged, not like they could kill him, he was Uzumaki 'freaking' Naruto, he thought smugly.

"Fifth?" Kankuro asked, he was actually angry at Naruto by any means, he was just doing it because it was kind of a big brother thing to do right. And if he read the situation right he'd never be able to intimidate one of his sister's boyfriends if he didn't at least try with Naruto. It was actually rather thankful for Naruto. The boy gave him his little sister.

"Yea. First is Gaara-chan." The sleeping redhead shifted in his arms slightly at her name, clutching his shoulder slightly tighter. "Next I guess Is Temari, then Sakura-chan, then granny, and then there's you. After you is that Matsuri lady." Said brunette gave Kankuro a thumbs up before returning to conversing with Sakura.

"How am I fifth?" The ordering of the list confused him greatly.

"Scariest person first." Naruto said laughing sadly. Why were all the women in his life utterly terrifying ninja?

"That pink haired girl is scarier than me, and your grandma?" Kankuro was at least kind of grateful he was scarier than Matsuri. Girl had learned from Gaara sure, but she lacked any sense of intimidation.

Naruto stopped midway and turned to Kankuro who gained a slight shiver at the look from Naruto.

"She punched the ground, and it wasn't ground anymore." Naruto said facing Kankuro with a disturbed look on his face. "She has monstrous strength now. She got it from granny!"

"Naruto." Gaara's tired voice echoed from his arms. "Shut up." Naruto did as he was told and immediately sucked on his bottom lip.

"You are so whipped." Kakuro said laughing. He got about one good chuckle out before he saw a single glaring green eye of his sister.

"Kakuro." Gaara said slightly more awake now. "Shut up or I'll kill you."

Naruto snorted. Kankuro immediately backed away wondering why he got the death threat while watching Gaara wrap her arms around Naruto's neck, and shifting into a more comfortable position. Gaara gave Naruto a short kiss on the cheek before snuggling into his shoulder. The answer was simple, Gaara was also whipped.

Naruto glared at the slowly rising form of Suna's main gate. It was moving; he thought at first that it was the desert playing a trick on him, a mirage. But then as he grew closer he saw them; nearly every citizen of Suna was out on their walls coming to greet them. To greet Gaara, their Kazekage.

Naruto felt a bit of pride for Gaara then. He jostled her in his arms, waking her from her partial slumber. She immediately glared at him. "Wake up Gaara-chan." He said happily. "Your village is here to greet you." Gaara turned her face away from him and he could feel her tense as she saw her village practically run towards them.

Gaara struggled to get down for a moment until Naruto moved to lower her to the ground as well. She still didn't trust her own legs. A soft grip remained on Naruto's shoulder to keep her steady. She wasn't afraid that her village knew of her relationship. She was fairly certain they already did thanks to Temari, Matsuri and the elders.

She watched in amazement as her villagers all crowded around them excited to see her, their Kazekage, that former murderous demon. If she had never met Naruto she would still be that demon. Her heart swelled as she looked at them all with smiles on their face.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Baki began sternly. She had never seen the man smile. But he wasn't frowning and that was perhaps the closest he would ever offer. "Thank you."

"But I didn't really do anything." Naruto said modestly completely confused by the sudden gratitude. Gaara just looked at Naruto, he really didn't know what he'd done. No idea how many people he affected. It was all thanks to that mysterious gift he had. That mysterious power that made everybody he meets want to believe in him.

That was how Naruto would bring about the world of peace Chiyo had mentioned. And Gaara would be there when she could.

XXXX

Gaara's frowned deepened, glaring at Naruto. This was a soul crushing amount of disappointment. She had been so looking forward to actually spending time with him, to actually be able to see what changed in him, to kiss him again and again and again, to have another date with him, to have a dozen stupid conversations that were completely meaningless yet end up burned into her more easily than her village's history. She wanted to sleep with him, to lay down in the soft new bed she bought weeks ago in anticipation for his return.

She knew she was being irrational. It made sense Akatsuki was beginning their operations. The leaf was a likely target. They would need Naruto, more than she needed him. Gaara stood up sharply yet slowly. Still not quite ready for quick movements. She grabbed two objects from her desk.

"Gaara-chan?" Naruto asked as her glare settled on him. "I know you're tired. And I would really like to stay here but." He stopped as Gaara reached up to his pack strap and began tugging on it.

"But this is the best chance for you to find the Uchiha, right?" Gaara knew the answer was yes. She knew how important retrieving Sasuke was to him. She didn't like knowing that he likely couldn't choose between herself and Sasuke. She doubted she could choose between Naruto and her own siblings. And most of all she knew she could wait.

"This." Gaara said holding up a small badge like emblem. It was in the shape of a solid gord much like the one Gaara carried. "This is a symbol of what you have done for the Village. With it you will be able to enter Suna at any time, for any reason." She spoke hopefully.

The older shinobi in the room had their eyes widen at that. Unlimited access to another Ninja village was unheard of. Even when the whirlpool village was still up their ninja were still slightly monitored when they came to Konoha. Naruto found himself spun around as Gaara placed the badge in his bag.

"I'm taking another shirt. Your old one is old." Her tone was one of no nonsense. Naruto could hear the implied 'And it's too small' as well. He vaguely wondered if she still wore his old shirt to bed. That was an image that was forever burned into his mind. He looked forward to seeing Gaara in his shirt once again.

"Uhh sure thing Gaara-chan." Naruto said helplessly and a little bit turned on. "Oh that reminds me, front left pocket there's something for you." Gaara had obtained one of Naruto's shirts, an unfolded crinkled one; the more it smelt like him the better. She blinked at Naruto. Of course, he would be one of those gift giving freaks for Konoha. Hell he was probably why they were so generous.

Gaara opened the pocket. It was a book. It looked slightly worn out, like somebody had tried to read through it as quickly as possible. But it was new. And Gaara knew exactly what it was. She couldn't be seen with that book in her office. Not in front of Baki; it was bad enough Temari and Matsuri knew.

But she wanted it bad. Taking Naruto's shirt she wrapped the book up in it in a small neat bundle. Now the book was going to smell like him too. Gaara wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Kakashi simply looked at her like she had kicked a puppy.

"And besides." Naruto began happily. "You shouldn't need me to sleep anymore now that you don't have Shukaku right." A pin could be heard dropping. Naruto watched as Gaara's face shifted from one of embarrassed delight at her gift. To one of anger. Temari's eyes widened.

"We should get going to Chiyo-sama's grave." Temari said quickly. Gaara nodded and followed behind her sister. The other ninja began to follow as well.

"Idiot." Sakura said punching Naruto in the arm before she joined.

"Huh, was it something I said?" Naruto asked confused. He looked at Kankuro, who just shook his head. Naruto was the one that upset Gaara. Therefore it was Naruto's problem.

It felt good.

XXXX

They saw them out of their village. Gaara wasn't good with long good byes. But at the same time she didn't know when Naruto would return again.

"I guess I should shake your hand or something. But I'm not really good at those things so I'll just leave it there." Naruto began stammering, looking away from Gaara's eyes and blushing in embarrassment.

Gaara blinked, she had been glaring at Naruto for a while now. She stepped forward with a sigh, her eyes softening as she did so. "No hand shake." Gaara said simply as she wrapped her arms around Naruto. Those with Keen eyes noticed her place something in his pocket. Naruto didn't notice, to shocked that Gaara was hugging him. He really shouldn't have been.

"Just come back to me." Gaara whispered in his ear. "I miss you." Those three words made Naruto realize his mistake earlier. He made it sound like Gaara was just using him for sleep. He was such a dunce.

"You bet!" Naruto said happily as he pulled Gaara back slightly. Just enough for the briefest of kisses. Any shorter and it wouldn't exist. Any longer and he wouldn't be able to leave her again.

XXXX

"Naruto." Sakura asked noticing something in Naruto's pocket. "What's this in your pocket" Curiosity had gotten the better of Sakura. She had seen Gaara place the object in there and had waited for Naruto to pull it out and examine it.

"Huh what?" Naruto asked, digging into his jacket pocket. He found a small bracelet. It was a string of small round glass shapes, each one a finely made symbol of the Leaf or Sand village. It danced when the light hit it sparkling into a dozen small rainbows. There was a small note with it as well.

'I had considered simply giving you a pair of my underwear, it worked in one of the books I read but I wanted to give you something I made with my own hands. Something you could wear all the time. ~ Gaara'

Naruto smiled as he put the bracelet on. Placing the note in a safe place.

"It's a gift from Gaara-chan." Naruto proclaimed happily, a little bit bummed on the underwear part. But this would do; till he returned to her, to his love.

 **AN: As always special thanks to Samnamikaze23, if you don't know what story's of his to read I recommend Meet the Oxtons a Naruto Overwatch cross over.**

 **This chapter could have gone so many ways. Ended on so many different tones. I had thought about a bitter ending. I really did I wanted to make the future for these two characters seem rocky and uncertain. But that's not really what Naruto is about. Naruto is always about that hope that things will be better. So I decided keep this chapter as positive as could be.**

 **Next update will before Rise of Darth Kyuubi my Starwars x Naruto crossover that I really need to think of a better name for. But you guys should check it out I like writing it. After that is The Ninja That Fell Through Time. Then Kurama Goes through puberty. Then the next chapter of this one. Which will probably just be a bunch of scenes of Gaara going through the shippuden timeline.**

 **Again thanks for all the support you've shown for this fic It makes me feel oh so gitty that I have gotten so many followers.**


	7. Who said romance was dead, undead?

Gaara hated snow, it was everything sand wasn't. It was crunchy, not soft. It was wet, not dry. It was cold - not that sand wasn't during the night, but snow was just inherently cold. Snow also got everywhere and stuck everywhere. The snow in her sandals was only adding to her irritation at the moment. Not to mention her ability in the presence of moisture even took more effort from her, which displeased her.

Basically she really hated snow.

She had just gotten out of the Kage summit. Where they pretty much had agreed to go to war, to stop Madara from obtaining Naruto. She was going to see him now, but it wasn't going to be the happy reunion she wanted. She knew that, but still she was going to see him, even though she was going to tell Naruto that Sasuke had tried to kill her and that she had tried to kill him.

Once again, Gaara found herself to be incredibly tired. Her last sleep in Naruto's arms was when she had just been brought back from the dead. That was a grand total of six months, twenty one days, four hours, twenty five-six minutes and fi… six seconds ago. The stress of Akatsuki, of Naruto not coming back alive was eating at her. Even her upgraded Naruto hugging device made out of the new clothing she took from him during their last encounter wasn't helping at all.

Naruto was already standing outside in the cold when Gaara arrived at his location. She noticed his scowl vanish as soon as his gaze quickly met hers. The simple fact that Gaara could make Naruto smile brought her happiness. It reassured her that she wasn't just being selfish and using Naruto.

Though he would be used as a pillow as soon as there was a moment to breath.

Which may very well be in the next life. Right now, they had something to discuss.

"Gaara-chan!" Naruto said happily. His eyes basically showed that he was begging for good news. It was unfortunate that Gaara did not have any good news to give Naruto. Naruto went to Gaara as soon as she was close enough. He quickly enveloped her in an embraced that showed how long he had missed her.

She sighed in relief, her stress vanishing in that simple hug. They shared the embrace, closed off from the cold snow around them and the eyes of their fellow ninja. The warmth was so nostalgic, she wanted to stay like this for a while, away from everything.

But Naruto had to ruin it. "What happened at the Summit?"

Gaara sighed as she broke away from Naruto's warmth, taking a step back from him. She then told him what transpired. The decision of the Kage, Sasuke's assassination attempt, Gaara's battle with Sasuke. She spared no detail, watching Naruto's emotions flash with every sentence.

She saw rage at Sasuke's attack. She saw tenderness and relief that she was okay. She saw regret that he wasn't there to stop Sasuke.

"And that's what happened at the five-Kage summit." Temari said sighing obviously irritated by the turn of events. The whole ordeal was needlessly stressful for everybody involved. There was still more bad blood between the Kage and villages than there should be.

"Sasuke doesn't see you anymore, he seeks only darkness." Gaara said, a frown etched into her face. Her eyes were closed now. She had resolved to tell Naruto the truth and what she thought needed to be said. But she didn't have the resolve to see Naruto's face when she did it.

"You once said to me you would become Hokage." Gaara opened her eyes to see the shock and hurt on Naruto's face. She took a step forward tillshe was within an arm's length of Naruto. "I've become Kazekage." She placed her arm onto Naruto's feeling the cold warmth he offered at the moment. She couldn't help but rub his arm longingly.

"I know that you have resolved to take the mantle of a Kage, so you must do what needs doing, as Sasuke's friend."

Their eyes met. A conflict of wills between them. Naruto knew that his decision was right. Naruto again knew that Gaara was right. Gaara knew that she was wrong, but again she knew that he was wrong. Naruto's eyes flickered away from hers. Looking down at the ground.

The moment Naruto pushed her hand away hurt her a bit, but she wasn't surprised by his motion. He was a human after all.

"We've relayed everything we came to say." Temari interjected for the two, breaking the icy silence that was settling between Naruto and her little sister. "Let's go, Gaara."

Allowing her gaze to linger on Naruto for a just a second longer, Gaara began to turn away from Naruto. She needed to tell him something, to make certain that this confrontation wasn't just a bitter one. She stopped after a few steps. She didn't turn to him, just clenched her fist and let the words flow out.

"I believe that I'm in love with you." Gaara said abruptly. Naruto's eyes widened slowly, he looked at her figure, completely shocked. She still didn't turn back, staring straight ahead. She could blame the tears brimming within her eyes on the snow. "Before, love was just some cruel Joke tattooed on my forehead. It was something that only the weak had, something that would ultimately betray me." Gaara rolled her shoulders standing up straighter and flexing her icy cold hands.

Naruto always had warm hands, she realized.

"But after meeting you, I realized something. That love is important. We need it." Gaara let out a small chuckle as the first tear slipped off of her cheek. "And I know that you love Sasuke as a brother."

"Gaara-chan." She heard Naruto mutter out.

She turned to look at him. The slightest of smiles graced her face as she allowed a few tears flow freely. "Now you must decide for yourself on what you can do for your brother. I'll be waiting for you at the end."

Naruto smiled. He nodded in understanding. His once depressed face now filled with determination. "Sorry, Gaara-chan." Naruto said. But he meant so much more in those words.

"Let's go," Gaara said as she and her siblings took off quickly darting through the air, leaving Naruto who had a lot to think about. Both regarding her confession and her decision.

XXXX

"What are you doing on the battlefield?!" Gaara finally shouted after a while of wondering what he was doing currently. It was the adrenaline, probably. She, Onoki had just taken down the third, or was it second Tsuchikage with Naruto's help. Naruto, the same idiot that she was fairly certain she loved at this point, was on the battlefield. A battle that was taking place to make sure that he, more specifically the Kyuubi that he contained didn't get obtained by Madara.

"Why did you come?!" Gaara shouted again. Feeling actual anger build up inside of her. Did he not understand that for him, being here was ruining the whole point of this battle? They were fighting to so that the Kyuubi would be safe. She was fighting so that he would be safe.

Naruto just grimaced, looking sideways. "I uhh well." He made out in slight anxiety. Gaara noted that his body radiated a golden chakra that seemed to give off heat. He appeared much happier since their last visit; his face twisting in jovial and embarrassed smiles. "I… love you?" Naruto offered with a hopeful smile. This was not how he planned on telling her but he hoped it would get him away from this mess currently.

Gaara's eye twitched, she couldn't take it anymore. She knew he was trying to get out of trouble. She knew he was just trying to buy time to think of an actual excuse. And she couldn't care less about that. He meant those words, she could feel it.

"W…Whoa!" Naruto found himself being thrust up by the sand beneath his feet, and was met by Gaara who floated over to him on her sand platform.

Naruto's eyes widened.

She wasn't certain what was different about this kiss. It could be the fact that Naruto was radiating Chakra. It could be the fact that her heart was still pounding from battle. It could be the fact that Naruto just said that he loved her. It could be the fact that she believed him. It could be none or all of those things.

But that kiss was utterly amazing.

"Now explain." Gaara demanded dropping to the ground. "And it better be good." Gaara demanded while wiping her mouth and folding her arms in a no moving stance.

"As interesting it is watching you two love birds, there is still battle going on." Onoki commented as he began to float off the ground.

' **Which is why I will brief you on the way.** ' The voice of Shikaku Nara echoed throughout their heads. For a second, Gaara thought that Shukaku had somehow ended up inside her head again. She was only off by a vowel.

Shikaku Nara explained the reason why Naruto was there, leaving a rather amused Onoki and a still slightly conflicted Gaara.

"Naruto." Gaara said abruptly, concern lacing her gravelly voice. "I understand going from battle to battle. But are you certain you'll be able to use the Kyuubi's chakra for so long?" Naruto frowned briefly before smiling at her. She should really learn to trust

"Don't worry Gaara-chan. I won't die until I do two things." Naruto said grinning brightly at her. They maintained a look for a long moment as Gaara tried to piece together what the two things were.

"Become Hokage and what else?" Gaara asked, rather confused and ashamed that she didn't know what Naruto's other desires were.

Naruto looked endearingly at her prompting a nervous blush on her face.

"Marry you." Naruto said simply. He watched with delight as Gaara's face went red at the thought looking like she just ate something incredibly sour. Gaara couldn't reply, just muttering out a silent "Oh…" which produced chuckles from the blond before her.

She enjoying the thought. Naruto wouldn't die until after he became Hokage and he married her. A sudden bout of anger surged out of her then at the thought of those requirements for Naruto's death. "If you die right after we get married I'm going to bring you back to life and kill you myself." Gaara's death threat caught Naruto by surprise and he nearly tripped over his own two feet.

"R…Right got it Gaara-chan!"

 **XXXX**

"Why are you taking my head?" Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, Father of Gaara and the reason why Shukaku was sealed inside Gaara, asked in a puzzled and slightly concerned manner. Rasa understood perfectly well that his daughter had every right to kill him, but wasn't the taking of the head against that?

Was she taking a trophy or something? Gaara was literally decapitating him with a Kunai. And while it didn't hurt or anything, he was creeped out. And the rest of his body was sealed thanks to her sand so he couldn't retaliate.

"I read in a book that it is customary to ask somebody's father for their blessing before you propose to them." Gaara replied blandly as she finished decapitating her father. She held the former Kazekage by the scruff of his sandy locks.

"Why would you want my blessing?" Rasa asked, the small amount of respect he had gained for his scary little daughter was beginning to wane.

"I don't, but he might." Gaara said flatly as she dangled her father's head in her hand. They weren't making any eye contact. It wasn't something that they had honestly ever done. "He's the reason I'm still alive and not enslaved by the demon you put in me." Gaara's tone was cold and uncaring.

"He sounds like a powerful ninja, what's his name?" Rasa asked curiously. Surely he would have known about such an astounding ninja from his own village.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and future Hokage of Konoha," Gaara said with a small smile. Rasa's face twisted into a frown. A foreign shinobi? And from Konoha of all places?

"I refuse."

 **XXXX**

There were better times to go over marriage then in the middle of a deadly battlefield against one of the greatest threats known to the world. But then again Gaara's pessimistic side was telling her that this would her last and only chance to get things such as this settled, besides it felt like this was the right moment. With every dead person coming to life and all.

She arrived just as a tall blond man appeared onto the scene in a yellow flash. He looked a lot like Naruto. With the exception of the signs of resurrection. Behind him, was Naruto being healed by Sakura.

"Thank you for taking care of my Son," Minato said happily smiling while looked at Sakura. "You wouldn't happen to be his girlfriend would you?" Minato asked curiously as he desperately tried to get more information about his son's life before he died again.

Gaara scowled.

"That title belongs to me," Gaara said walking up from behind Minato, still clutching Rasa's head by the hair. "Who are you?" Gaara asked confused. The man had called Naruto son.

"He is Minato Namikaze, fourth Hokage of Konoha." Rasa said from his resting position while musing.

"More importantly he's my dad. Isn't that cool Gaara-chan?" Naruto asked happily, allowing Sakura to continue healing him. Gaara wasn't too fond of their close proximity.

"Rather ironic that he sealed a demon in his child as well." Rasa commented with a chuckle.

"Why are you being carried around like that, Rasa?" Minato asked chuckling. The battle could wait a couple of more seconds. Besides, he wouldn't be able to focus on the fight after seeing something like that.

"Naruto needs to ask for his blessing to marry me." Gaara said proudly as Rasa then found himself being flung through the air towards Naruto who looked aghast. She couldn't help by smile as Naruto fumbled Rasa's head in horror, muttering apologies, before catching Rasa upside down.

Gaara said with an emotionless bow. "Lord fourth, I wish to have you blessing in marrying your son." Like she was simply doing this for the formality.

"Uhh that's something only the 'would be groom' has to do." MInato said chuckling at the odd little red head. He couldn't help but think that while she looked a bit like Kushina with that brilliant red hair, the the two were nothing alike.

Kushina wouldn't actually decapitate someone and ask for his hand in a weird way, right? Bashing the possibilities he asked, "But uhh who are you?"

"Gaara of the Desert; Fifth Kazekage of Suna." Gaara said with a small blush having embarrassed herself in front of Naruto's father. It was weird talking to people that were supposed to be dead all day. Minato smiled at her and placed a hand on Gaara's shoulders.

"Once this is over, take care of my Son okay?" Minato said with a bit of happiness making its way out. "Now, let's buy my son sometime to recover?" Minato said as he and Gaara vanished in a flash and were on the battlefield in an instant.

Naruto slowly turned Rasa's head back up straight. "Uhh hello?" Naruto asked the rather silent disembodied head. He looked in scrutiny.

"So you're the Fourth Hokage's son?" Rasa asked raising an eyebrow. Naruto nodded slowly and nervously, he wasn't a big fan of ghosts and this felt really disturbing. "And you wish to marry my daughter?"

Naruto blinked and nodded again. Rasa sighed, "I lost alright to call myself her father, but she cares enough about you to give me a single chance to be it." Rasa's frown persisted as he stared hard into Naruto's eyes.

"This is a little creepy." Sakura muttered under her breath.

"Very well Naruto. You have my blessing." Rasa's voice was just as gravelly as Gaara's and twice as thick.

 **XXXX**

The Infinite Tsukuyomi had one benefit. For Gaara, it showed her exactly what she wanted out of life. Once she was free she found herself knowing exactly what she wanted from her and Naruto. Which is why as soon as she found herself free from the technique, she went to find him.

A simple feat if she focused. She had sealed some of her personal sand in Naruto's bracelet. Hence, she could always feel his general direction, regardless of distance. It was rather disappointing that she couldn't get it to sense distance but at the moment she would go to the ends of the earth to find Naruto.

"Go," Kankuro said firmly as he wiggled his way out of the same cocoon Gaara was trapped in moments ago. "Me and Temari will make sure somebody is in charge." Kankuro wasn't going to lead the ninja in her stead he would delegate that responsibility to somebody else. Likely Shikamaru or one of the other Kage. It was too much work.

"Thank you brother." Gaara said happily as she bolted away on a cloud of sand.

She wanted the family that both her and Naruto were denied. She wanted children, to watch them grow up the way Naruto and her parents never did or could. She wanted to have a family with Naruto. That's what her dream in the Infinite Tsukuyomi was.

After traveling at max speed for hours Gaara eventually found them. Team seven limping their way back to the others. Sakura was supporting Sasuke as they walked onwards. And Kakashi was supporting Naruto.

Gaara stood on the path in front of them and smiled at Naruto. He had done it. Much like he had brought her out of the darkness all those years ago. He had dragged Sasuke out of the same darkness kicking and screaming. And it only cost him one limb.

Naruto smiled, looking up and seeing Gaara standing in their path. She had never looked more beautiful in that moment. A pleasant smile adorned on her face. Shrugging his arm off of Kakashi's shoulder, Naruto increased his pace towards her.

He stumbled abit and was about to fall but Gaara held him up. The two looking deep into each other's eyes.

"Gaara-chan?"

"What is it Naruto?" The two were embraced in a hug that showed that it was the beginning. That they would be together from now henceforth, and no village, no shinobi, no force would keep them away apart.

Naruto stared at her warmly, a wide and teasing smile threatening to split his face open.

"I'm tired."

 **AN: Woot! Up next wedding chapter! and incase you don't know SamNamikaze23 does the beta thing for this fic! so shower him with love.**

 **I just want to say Thank you all so much, This fic has broken 300 followers since I first started it nearly two months ago. To me that's insane! I like to think it's because I shamelessly whore myself out on places like reddit. But I'm happy you all enjoy it.**

 **This story has two more chapters left in it. The wedding chapter, which I have ants in my pants about writing, and then the epilouge thing.**

 **Next update is probably for Starwars: A forgotten path. Been iching to start the third chapter for that series. Jedi's are fun! After that I recon it will be the wedding chapter for this fic or an emotional one for The Ninja That Fell Through Time.**

 **And sorry to any fans of Kurama Goes Through Puberty, but that fic is on Hiatus until I don't have to force myself to write it. I gotta feel the words flow... or something jazzy like that.**

 **Until next time! Peace Love and Happiness.**


	8. Ninja wedding the chipmunk and the fox

One hour, five minutes, eleven... ten seconds.

For once Gaara was counting down to something instead of counting how long it's been. She was already done with today, she was done with it yesterday. For the sake of tradition, she had been forced to not sleep with Naruto. She had a perfectly good opportunity to fall asleep with Naruto and she was denied.

She regretted not taking him up on the offer to just sign the papers and call it done.

She regretted listening to the Daimyos of the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind saying that they would like to attend an official ceremony; something about strengthening international relationships. Gaara smiled; that was all the event was going to be; a meet and greet of powerful people. All five of the current Kage were gathered in this spot as well as numerous Daimyos.

"Bleh." Gaara forced out a choking sound, grunting in irritation as Sakura tightened one of the sashes on her brilliant pure white dress. The sash was dull blue, signifying her village's colors. It clashed wonderfully with her long red hair that she had allowed to be maneuvered into a cascade of crimson down her back.

"Sorry Gaara!" Sakura apologized, huffing as she continued to fuss with the dress. "Why am I the one doing this?" Sakura asked glaring at Temari and Matsuri who were just sitting in the corner while Sakura fretted over Gaara's dress.

Temari spared an arched eyebrow, a slight amusement twinkling within her orbs. "You are doing a pretty good job from what I'm seeing. Besides, too many cooks spoil the soup, right Matsuri?"

Matsuri nodded with a kind smile that sent an apology to Sakura who groaned at the comment, "What a way to exempt yourself."

She wasn't paying attention and unconsciously tightened the sash again to Gaara's discomfort and annoyance. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to breathe.

"Be Careful or I'll crumble to sand." Gaara weakly warned, adjusting the sashes again, effectively undoing what Sakura had just done. She didn't know why they (Sakura) were putting up such a fuss about this.

She already knew that Naruto thought she was beautiful, and that he thought she was most beautiful when she was just waking up. Gaara didn't want to outdo that with an event that would only happen once. She didn't want a one-time event to be when Naruto thought she was most beautiful. She wanted to be the most beautiful every morning. She wanted to be the most beautiful to him every day.

"You're doing it because Temari is a tomboy." Matsuri pointed out, trying to placate an infuriated Sakura with a smirk on her face. "And I'm color blind." Temari shrugged at the excuse, not caring to support the argument. Sakura knew it was a bullshit excuse although true; Matsuri also knew it was bullshit. It wasn't that she didn't care; she just wasn't cut out for theses kind of things.

Perhaps, during her own wedding she could correct that.

"I'm wearing white and blue though." Gaara said blinking at her friend, Matsuri was just being lazy. "That does not excuse Temari at all, and besides, isn't Sakura a tomboy?" A growl from Sakura and a sudden tug brought a small playful smile on her face.

"True." Temair said relaxing into her chair even further. "There's also the fact that if any of us touch the dress Sakura will snap at us."

"I will not!" Sakura snapped at them. "Just someone come over here and hold this bit." Matsuri stood up and wearily grabbed the piece of cloth Sakura had designated.

Gaara frowned, feeling her clothing suddenly shift in an unexpected way.

"Why is there so much sand?" Sakura whined, while she continued to work on the dress. A tug here a tug there. "Dammit Matsuri you're doing that wrong give it here."

Temari snorted, "See, told you." She laughed, swirling the drink in her hand. She'd been of drinking age for three months and she was already a bit of a whino. "And she's called Gaara of the desert for a reason Sakura."

"Matsuri." Gaara muttered grumpily as Sakura continued to huff and puff about the dress. Weren't weddings supposed to be happy events? Why was Sakura getting so stressed out about it? Oh right Sakura loved stress.

"Yes Gaara?" Matsuri asked already knowing what Gaara was going to ask. She had been making this same demand nearly every fifteen minutes. Matsuri couldn't help but let some of the annoyance slip into her tone.

"Go tell Naruto I'm tired." Gaara said wincing as Sakura adjusted her dress for the umpteenth time.

"He says he knows." Matsuri, Temari, and Sakura all echoed instantly, dry expressions on their faces.

"None of you left though." Gaara pointed out looking around the room with what could be considered a pout.

"You've had all of us go tell him that at least once." Temari said sighing. "Besides, it's almost time to get started." Gaara grumbled in response allowing Sakura to position her arms once again.

"My feet hurt." Gaara complained simply.

"Hold still Gaara, I'm not done!" Sakura finally snapped at the bride.

"Sakura if you don't stop I'm going to walk out there Naked." Gaara's tone left little room for argument and Sakura backed away instantly. She would certainly do it. It'd be rather funny watching the World leaders gawk as she walked down the aisle completely nude. Gaara smiled fondly, wondering what Naruto would do. Over the last couple years he had proven to be utterly amazing as a fiancé.

If she had been just wearing one of his shirts when she walked out he'd probably quickly take her to bed. For sleep and 'other' bed activities, straight naked though. Gaara could see Naruto's jealous side coming out and attempting to quickly make everybody not look at her. Or if he would strip down and join her in a rather tasteless prank. And she knew she wouldn't like the looks he would be getting.

"Gaara I don't trust that look on your face." Temari warned, standing up. Sometime watching could be boring after a while. Not that she was going to join.

"What look on my face?" Gaara asked quickly touching her face in confusion. She spoke like it was the norm of the day. "I was just thinking about walking down the Aisle naked."

"Gaara!" Sakura snapped in shock.

"Was Naruto-kun also naked?" Matsuri asked curiously, a slight blush full perverseness creeping in. It seemed reading those novels alongside Gaara had made their minds a little bit more free. Gaara nodded and Matsuri squealed in delight. Sakura couldn't help but groan while Temari rolled her eyes.

"I wonder how everything is going with the boys." Temari mused.

It was very likely that Naruto would be pacing back and forth trying to make sure that his suit was one straight while constantly freaking out about not everybody being in their correct seats. It was just so easy to picture Naruto being overly stressed about the wedding.

XXXX

"Soooo, why aren't you freaking out?" Shikamaru drawled lazily, watching Naruto put the final touches on his wardrobe. A standard well fitted black suit with a white shirt underneath. Altogether he looked fairly presentable. Which was surprising considering the person he had grown up with. To be honest this made him a little suspicious but he figured boys will be men.

That thought was deleted by Naruto's next statement.

"Because I'm a shadow clone." Naruto said in a tone that made people question if he was joking or not. Iruka looked at him with an arched eyebrow.

Shikamaru frowned at the joke. Everybody knew how important Gaara was to Naruto. Surely he wouldn't have a shadow clone marry her. That would just be cruel, and also, a very quick and painful way to die. And considering he was going to be looked at for explanations, he wasn't going to like the outcome. Naruto ruffled his blond hair, wondering. "Do you think I should swap it for the orange shirt?"

"The Hag said no Orange." Sai commented blandly as usual, while he entered the tent. "Tsunade says it's time."

"Awesome!" Naruto said jumping in excitement. He paused as soon as he landed to straighten out his suit once again. "Let's get this show on the road!" Naruto shouted happily.

Shikamaru lagged behind with Iruka. "You don't think that's actually a shadow clone do you?" Shikamaru asked suspiciously.

"Naruto isn't that stupid Shikamaru, give your future hokage a little bit of faith." Iruka said laughing holding the flap open for Shikamaru. Surely Naruto wouldn't do something like that. It was just a joke. Right?

XXXX

Naruto stood tall and proud, his signature grin splitting his whiskered features. Behind him stood Shikamaru, his best man. Sai and Kiba were playing their roles as Groomsmen. He was a little saddened by Sasuke's decision to ignore the event, but it was likely Sasuke didn't even know it was happening given his current Journey of self-discovery. It was still a jerk move though. He would give him D-rank missions for this affront.

Opposite him, stood Gara's bride's maids, the only one of the official couples on the stage was Shikamaru and Temari. How odd was it that an attack on the leaf village all those years ago could bring about so much love.

And if the looks Kiba and Matsuri were sharing was any indication, there would be yet more love between the wind and fire. Sakura stood between both Temari and Matsuri as Gaara's bride's maids.

Before him stretched far more people than Naruto had ever expected there to be. Most of it was due to the two Daimyo's who were sitting near each other, pleasant smiles on their elderly faces. They had gone out of the way to fund and host the event. Rather eager to strengthen the ties between the two nations. There were even rumors of an arranged marriage taking place between some of the minor family members of the two great lords.

The Kage, current and former all sat in the front two rows near the Daimyos. The rifts that once divided countries were closed and an era of peace was being formed. Naruto couldn't help but wonder if Jiraiya and Grandma Chiyo were smiling down at what he, and Gaara had brought about. And it was all thanks to a crazy madman trying to take over the world.

Who would have wondered? Peace at their time. It was a comforting thought. Naruto smiled, a fond smile on his face. This was the world he wished his children were to be born into.

Naruto's wandering thoughts were halted as all the noise stopped. Gaara appeared at the end of the aisle, Baki's stoic face didn't even break into a smile as he simply performed the duty of Gaara's father to give her away.

It was better than Gaara's suggestion to hold her father's reanimated head for the handing over ceremony. That suggestion earned a lot of disapproval. A lot.

For Gaara's part she walked forward with a bundle of orange flowers. Poppies most likely. A small delighted smile could be seen on her red stained lips.

Naruto's smile couldn't get any larger if he wanted it to. Walking towards him was the first piece of something he'd been missing for a long time. Walking towards him wasn't the Kazekage of the village hidden in the sand. Walking towards him wasn't the former container of Shukaku. Walking towards him was his wife, the first piece of his family. Certainly Iruka, Tsunade, and Sakura were his family. But it wasn't the same. With Gaara it was different. Totally different.

Gaara's pace almost quickened when she saw Naruto standing there looking happy and handsome. She knew she had rushed him with the proposals during the Fourth Shinobi war, but Naruto had grabbed her hand and helped her spring along the way, gleefully sprinting with their unusual relationship that was based around sleeping; which was exactly what she was going to do with her tall blond whiskered teddy bear as soon as they were done with this.

It was then halfway to the altar that realization set on both of them. A sudden giddiness that years of kissing and love was about to suddenly mean something more. Together they were together, but now they were seconds away from being together in the eyes of the world. This was a story.

A story telling you that no matter how low you start, no matter how deep into the darkness you fall, no matter how much the world hates you, no matter what atrocities you committed, there was and always will be hope. You can overcome the hatred. You can be brought back into the light. You can be redeemed. You can become great. And you can experience love. There is always hope. All it requires, is that someone.

That someone willing to share your burden every step of the way. Willing to protect you from your vulnerabilities, and will accept your support in his travails also. Gaara smiled looking at Naruto; she found hers.

The message of unity that their relationship was going to spread throughout the world wasn't even on the radar on Naruto's nor Gaara's mind. Their thoughts were much more-simple; love, happiness, and excitement. Weeks of being calm and collected about the wedding were suddenly being made null as anxiety began to flood them.

Their eyes met for the hundredth time during that walk, they would not separate again.

"You look tired." Naruto whispered at Gaara as she approached. Gaara nodded, her pleasant smile growing slightly at that. Tired had become something more than meaning sleepy to the two of them. Tired to Naruto and Gaara meant that they wanted to spend time with each other. It was a simple union of togetherness that confused everybody else in the world. But to them it was just how they showed love.

"Are we allowed to talk up here?" Gaara whispered back. Her grin smile not vanishing even as she watched Naruto make a face and shrug his shoulders. Gaara gave a light chuckle that made Naruto's stomach flutter.

"Doesn't matter." Iruka whispered standing between the two. "Naruto Uzumaki, Gaara of the Desert. Turn to face each other and join hands." Iruka's voice boomed and carried out throughout the crowd. Years of being a teacher had finally paid off. "We stand here today, coming from all corners of the world, as friends, and allies, to witness the Union between Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara of the Desert." Iruka smiled as he gazed at the young couple their eyes firmly locked on one another. "The Bride and groom have prepared their own vows."

Gaara smiled, truth be told she was using a modified version of the wedding quote from one of the Icha Icha books, but only a few people in the audience would recognize it. Or so she thought; apparently there were a lot of closet perverts in the Elemental Nations.

Gaara looked at Naruto, letting the words flow off her lips.

"Naruto-kun, random chance seems to have operated in our favor, and brought us together. My heart is enlarged by your gentle strength, and I find peace in your presence. For your smile which warms my heart, your smile which pouts with love."

Naruto's pupils shimmered with tears. Gaara looked at him truthfully. This was her words, her heart.

"And at the leaping of my heart, I cry out, ' _You are Mine._ ' Through rising suns and darkening stars, through peaceful times and troubled days, though smiles and through sadness, I commit myself to you, Naruto Uzumaki. To fan your Will of Fire, to support your dreams, and to love you unceasingly as long as our hearts still beat."

'G…Gaara?!' Naruto gulped, lack of control over his emotions. Gaara slowly blinked, watching Naruto's smile twitch ever so slightly and a single tear began to worm its way out of Naruto's eye. He brushed it away with his bandaged arm, smiling brightly at her again. His mouth then moved.

"In you, I find beauty and enjoyment in the simplest of things. My desires are ignited and satisfied in one clean sweep. Your love is like a dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars. For the look in your eyes and the sound of your voice and the leaping of my heart, I cry out, ' _She Is Mine_.'"

"Through bright suns, and waning moons, through celebrated victories, and dangerous journeys, through life's delicious ramen and Sakura's Medicines, I will commit myself to you, to encourage you, to support your dreams, to love you unrelentingly, as long as we both draw breath."

Naruto smiled as he said the lines that he came up with after learning of Gaara's idea. She was so surprised to find out that those lines actually came from him. It was a spur of the moment thing with Jiraiya. So the words had extra meaning for Naruto.

The rings were delivered by a young aspiring shinobi from Suna and a young aspiring Kunoichi from Konoha. Both of which looked at two of the greatest ninja in the world in awe. Naruto and Gaara took each other's rings and smiled.

"Sabaku Gaara, with this ring, I submit myself to you." Naruto said slipping the ring gingerly onto Gaara's petite hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto, with this ring I submit myself to you." Gaara said placing her ring onto Naruto's unbandaged hand.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife!" Iruka practically shouted, the excitement within him building to its maximum. Before him stood Naruto, that little troublemaker he thought of as a brother, now marrying someone that once tried to destroy the Leaf village. The world was an unusual place. "You may kiss the bride."

Naruto grinned, "Like I needed your permission."

Naruto and Gaara shared a smile as they slowly approached one another. The inches dragging on for miles before them as they slowly moved forward. His hand went around her back. Her hand cupped his cheek lovingly. She began to purse her lips, and he did the same. Their first kiss as husband and wife.

Poof.

Gaara stood there frozen and unblinking as Naruto vanished. His suit falling to the ground with nobody to sustain its form. The crowd gasped in shock. Iruka had a stroke, no, coma, no, both. Shikamaru felt his ghost leaving his body, Gaara was going to slaughter them all.

Why was his life so troublesome?

"That idiot." Every single person from the village hidden in the leaf said at once.

Gaara looked around, seeing her husband wasn't around and simply smiled as she saw his clothing laying on the ground. With a small smile that would scare people in a dark ally Gaara simply waved at her wedding guests.

Before she crumbled into sand.

XXXX

Hours away at their designated Honeymoon location. Naruto and Gaara stirred from a mid-day nap. The memories of their clones flooding into them like a pleasant dream. A pleasant breeze fluttered into the room from the opened door. Official wedding documents lay under a heavy Kunai signed and waiting to be documented. Random bits of clothing scattered the floor and other furniture.

"I guess we're married now." Naruto said stretching as he examined the ring on his finger. The real ring. Not the fake left at the ceremony. Gaara stirred behind him, he remembered how beautiful she looked at the wedding. But right now. With her rested half asleep eyes and dressed in pretty only one of his T-shirts. Gaara was the most beautiful he'd ever seen her.

"Yea." Gaara said smiling bring her ring hand up to meet Naruto's they laid their watching the rings in the light for the briefest of moments.

"Do you think they're mad that we weren't really at the wedding?" Naruto asked concerned as he allowed his arm to flop down onto the bed with a flop. Gaara's fell to his chest where she began playing with a few of his blond and sparse chest hairs. She plucked it quickly.

"You are known as the Number one-hyperactive-unpredictable-knuckleheaded ninja." Gaara's smile at the nickname was something that Naruto loathed. Why did Kakashi have to tell her that? "So a normal wedding just wouldn't be you. I think Sakura will be the most annoyed, maybe Choji, we did take our cake."

"I'm married to an adorable redheaded sand chipmunk." Naruto said smiling as he laid a tender kiss on Gaara's forehead; just on top of her symbol of love. Gaara squirmed under the kiss and the description Naruto gave her. She hated being described as a chipmunk. She didn't see the relationship to the small rodents that were scattered about the land of fire.

"And I married the best Teddy Bear ever." Gaara said smiling, twisting her body to be more on top of Naruto. Aligning her face with his, she slowly kissed him. Their first kiss as husband and wife. A small loving thing that neither one of them could get enough of. It burnt like a small furnace the passion that was inside them.

It was the experienced kiss of love, one that allowed them to show just how much they loved each other.

"I am not a Teddy Bear." Naruto growled. Gaara separated their lips a chuckle escaping from hers. The lose blanket that was covering them folded behind Gaara who was straddling him now. Her bare legs brushing against his pajama pants, her left hand drew circles on his bare chest.

"You are totally a Teddy Bear." Gaara smiled brightly at Naruto. Leaning down for their second kiss as Husband and wife. It was filled with just as much love and passion as the one they just shared. But there was something more in this kiss. It was a hungry thing. And as Gaara bit Naruto's lip she couldn't help but smile.

"Now it's time to get started on the rest of your present." Gaara said with a bright smile. Naruto groaned as he tried to sit up but Gaara's hand kept him in place.

"What's the rest of my present?" Naruto asked confused.

"A family." Gaara said with a dry lust in her voice.

Naruto grinned perversely, showing once and for all that he had actually inherited something from his late master.

~The END~

Come back next time for the Epilogue.

 **AN: So wow Last chapter :D What a fun fic it's been. As always Special thanks to SamNamikaze23. He was such a big help with this fic.**

 **(I know sand clones don't get their user's memories but just deal with it)**

 **I'm putting this story down as complete but I'll post an Epilogue chapter here eventually. Probably in a month.**

 **I've also decided to stop saying what order I'm going to work on fics. It never sticks out as a plan outside of the first fic. But yea Next update is for Sakura Hyuuga is a Bitch. I like it, check it out. I've also been plotting The Ninja That Fell Through Time. I think I have the correct direction to take that fic.**

 **Hmm. Anyways. I think I'm going to do a fic with Narutayu, maybe Narukarin... Could do Naruino. All of those look fun.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	9. A growing storm

Gaara had spent much of her life living with Shukaku constantly trying to get her to do the unspeakable. Kill that guy, crush that woman, pulverize those puppies, the list of his demands were numerous.

The newest parasitic being to take up residence within her mind was much more demanding; Chocolate Cake, Raspberries, and a few times -to her loving husband's utter delight- ramen. And like the creature before it, her growing child refused to let her get any sleep.

And yet her beloved Teddy Bear was snoring away peacefully while his spawn was apparently in the middle of a spar with her organs. Also, she wanted something sweet, and cold, no wait hot, she wanted hot fudge ice cream. "Naruto."

The blonde future Hokage, savior of the lands snored _oh so slightly_ irregularly at that.

Gaara couldn't see his face this time. It had grown awkward to lay facing Naruto. But being spooned by him wasn't bad either. Though his hands often wandered to one of her breasts while the other fondled her swollen stomach, not that she could blame him both of those areas had gotten huge. Her stomach was roughly the size of a ramen bowl. A large one.

"Naruto," Gaara said once again, this time, she grabbed his hand that was groping her breast. She attempted to pull it away but her sleeping husband's hand practically snapped back into place. She vaguely wondered if Sakura and Tsunade had snuck some of Jiraiya's DNA into Naruto's synthetic limb.

This time, Naruto awoke, and with a jaw stretching yawn, snuggled back into the nape of Gaara's neck just below her long red braid. " _Whazit_ Gaara?"

Gaara froze. Not because of Naruto's awakening nor because of the tightness of his grip on her breast. No, her darling unborn child was deciding that now was a good time to come out into the world. The bed was wet. It also still wanted the ice cream.

"Gaara?" Naruto asked slightly more awake now. He lazily rubbed out the crust from his eyes. "You okay?"

Gaara sat up suddenly; her muscles were contracting. "Go get Sakura."

"Huh?" Naruto asked, a growing sense of panic counteracting Gaara's natural calm tone. "She's all the way in Konoha though."

Gaara sighed and choose to forgive her husband for being an Idiot. Sakura had insisted that she stay with them in Suna until the baby was born. That was over a week ago. "Naruto, the baby is coming. Go get Sakura."

"The baby is coming?" Naruto repeated. Gaara watched his blue eyes blink at that. And then widen considerably. "The baby is coming! Holy Shit!" Naruto shouted as the statement woke him up like a cold shower in the morning.

"Go get Sakura," Gaara repeated while Naruto stood up and began to panic.

"What do I do?!" Naruto asked in a panic. He was out of the bed in a second, attempting to help Gaara up. "Wait no you should lay down right?"

"Get Sak-"

"Oh wait I know! I should go get Sakura! She's here right okay! You stay right here and don't panic okay, panicking is not going to help. Oh, wait! We're supposed to do those breathing exercises right?! Okay wait, breath with me in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out. Wait! What am I doing? I need to go get Sakura! Okay, I love you! Both of you don't panic, Sakura's awesome at this! Hold on I'll be right back!"

Gaara was just befuddled.

She watched Naruto run around the room twice before he finally left. Sakura wasn't that far but she wondered if she should have made Naruto wear more clothes other than his froggy boxer shorts. Gazing at her protruding stomach, she felt a kick. Her natural response was to poke back. "You better not inherit your father's motor-mouth."

The child didn't respond. Gaara took this as a good sign.

"Sakura-chan!" Gaara heard her incredibly loud husband's voice echo throughout the halls of her home. An impressive feat considering that sound didn't bounce well over hardened Sand.

"W…What?!" Sakura's voice carried just as far. "Gah! Naruto what the hell are you doing!? Puts some pants on!"

Naruto sounded curious. "Why are you naked?!"

Gaara had to remind herself that she loved Naruto dearly. She also had to remind herself that she was the one to make him impregnate her.

"It's hot in Suna you idiot! Now get out of my room!"

"Wait! Oh, yea! The baby's coming!"

There was a long silent pause. Gaara vaguely wondered if Sakura had killed her husband. Given the current state of things, she wouldn't be too terribly upset until she tried to sleep again. Her eyes once again drifted towards her round stomach. "Maybe you'll be a good substitute?"

"The baby's coming?!" That one was Sakura's as there was a sudden slamming noise. "You idiot! Why didn't you say so sooner?!"

Gaara was once again happy that she had convinced Naruto that Shikamaru and Temari would be much better godparents than Sakura and Sasuke. These feelings were compounded when Sakura came barging in wearing nothing but a bathrobe.

Sakura herself was also three months pregnant, still a long time till her due date, so she wasn't exactly showing.

Throughout the entire birthing procedure, it was Gaara that remained calm. Even the very experienced Sakura who had overseen the births of more children than Gaara would ever care to hear was in a panic. Gaara blamed Sakura's pregnant state and more or less missing husband.

It was Gaara that told them that she should be in the tub. It was Gaara who kept track of her contractions, their regularity was something she found a brief bit of enjoyment in. It was Gaara who reminded Sakura that she was the midwife. It was Naruto that squeezed Gaara's hand.

Gaara had decided to do a home birth. The reasons were rather simple; she was good friends with the best medical ninja, she was having a healthy pregnancy, she wanted to freely be able to snuggle with her teddy bear, and lastly, somewhere along the line, she obtained Naruto's disdain for hospitals.

The birth was ended with a _Plop._

Thirty-two minutes, sixteen seconds since her water broke.

"Wow," Sakura said loudly. She was quick to cut the umbilical cord with a chakra scalpel. "That has to be the easiest birth I'd ever done."

Gaara stared at Sakura. She wanted to walk over to her baby. But her legs were filled with sand. "Having Shukaku removed was more painful." The dryness in her voice earned her a chuckle from Naruto and a snort from Sakura.

"All I'm saying is that you should have like fifty kids with how easy that was," Sakura said in a half asleep voice. She handed the oddly silent bundle to Gaara and let out a yawn.

"For Suna, I am required to have three children," Gaara said plainly as she examined her newborn child. She had hoped that she would feel some sort of motherly love right off the bat for her child. It was small, pink, and had a horn made of wispy red hair. With two whisker marks on each cheek, Gaara's teal eyes met her child's blue eyes.

She had no connection to this creature she just gave birth to.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Naruto finally asked. He moved over to Gaara's shoulder to look at his child.

"Huh?" Sakura asked in confusion. She could have sworn that she had told them. "It's a boy."

Gaara could see the instant love in Naruto's eyes. She watched in amazement as he tenderly brought a finger down to poke the silent child's nose. "Hey, there little guy. I'm your daddy." the child squirmed at the touch and let out a small grunt.

Sakura sat down on her chair and looked at the newly formed family. Gaara seemed off somehow. "You two decide on a name yet?"

"Well how about it Mom, he's got your hair." Naruto had agreed for her that whoever the child got their hair from was going to get to name it. It was the only way he was going to get a child called, _Boruto._

Gaara stared at her son. The child was fussing. Almost without thinking she brought it to her exposed breast and the child began suckling. It was a strange sensation. "Arashi." The name wasn't even one that she was considering before now. "Arashi Uzumaki." She repeated feeling his weight.

Naruto looked at her and smiled brightly. "I like it."

"Yea yea, I'm very happy and stuff. Any questions or can I go to bed?" Sakura asked rubbing her eyes.

Naruto spoke first and pointed at Gaara's chest, brushing against the breast that was not being occupied by Arashi. "Does she get to keep those?"

Sakura examined Gaara's swollen chest briefly, resisting the urge to pat her still rather a flat chest. "Some do some don't."

"They're too big," Gaara complained. She didn't like them, they were heavy and moved too much. "I don't like them."

Naruto smiled at her. "Me and Arashi do."

Sakura let out a deep sigh at her Idiot teammate. "Anything else?"

Gaara looked at her child one last time, then looked at Sakura, then finally at Naruto. When she was born, her mother had sacrificed herself so that she could protect her. That was the kind of love Gaara was expecting to feel. The same kind of love she felt for Naruto; the love where she would do absolutely anything for them. "Why don't I love my child?"

The room dropped five degrees.

"Postpartum depression," Sakura said grimly. "It's uncommon but rare, especially among Shinobi." Naruto wisely sat and listened as he squeezed Gaara's hand gently. "What exactly are you feeling for your child?"

Gaara examined Arashi. What did she feel when she looked at her son? There wasn't anything really. "Nothing, I thought there was supposed something that would make me want to give my life to make certain he lived." Gaara then blinked and looked at Naruto, she did not like the frown on his face. "I don't want to be like my father."

Naruto simply held his wife for a long time. He wasn't certain when Sakura left. He didn't even remember when Gaara started to cry. Probably the ninth time he said they'd get through this together.

XXXX

Six months passed and Gaara noted a few things a few things. One was that she could be a mother and she did love her son. The second was that Arashi was very quiet, very silent, and very curious. The third was that her son had inherited her Kekkai Genkai in a very unusual way. The fourth and most troublesome, that she would forever curse herself for naming her son after a storm.

"Gaara!"

Gaara looked up from the stack of papers that had somehow developed during her pregnancy. There had always been paperwork. But apparently, the village fell apart if she had to leave for a few week to give birth to one of their future leaders. She put sand in the tea of one of the councilors that made a comment about why a woman shouldn't lead.

Matsuri barged into the room, her reddened face filled with panic. "Arashi-kun is flying!"

Gaara blinked, more confused than shocked. "What?"

"Arashi, he started floating and then he started flying and I couldn't catch him, he kept avoiding me, and even Kankuro can't catch him with his puppets!"

"What of Naruto? Doesn't he have some sort of flying ability or something?"

Matsuri blinked in confusion. "Gaara, Naruto's been gone for a while. He's in Konoha."

"Oh." Gaara briefly wondered which was more worrisome, her son flying, or Kankuro trying to catch him with that Sasori puppet of his. "I will go retrieve him."

True to Matsuri's word, her son was flying. The winds were swirling around him, coddling him almost. His wild red hair was swirling about, dancing to the flow of the wind.

Arashi flung himself about to look at his mom. He smiled as soon as he saw her.

Gaara on her cloud of sand couldn't help but smile at her son's small joyous smile. He had no concept of wrong, but he could recognize her face and Naruto's instantly. He always smiled at them. "Arashi, come to me." She said in her Kazekage voice.

The wind met with the sand and started flinging it about. She had to carefully navigate a pillar of compacted sand in order to reach her son.

Arashi stared at his mom and attempted to swim closer to her. It didn't work. In his frustration whatever technique or chakra manipulation, he was using stopped in an instant.

Her son was falling. Nearly fifty feet.

Given a moment's thought, Gaara would have simply caught Arashi with her sand. But her motherly instincts kicked in. She leaped from her sand cloud after Arashi. Arashi let out a rare cry when she reached him. Wrapping herself around her crying child Gaara braced from the impact.

She slammed against the side of a building, before tumbling down into the cold wooden arms of Kankuro's puppet.

"Gaara?" Kankuro asked concerned. "You and Arashi okay?"

Now safe, Gaara examined her child who smiled at her the same way Naruto did when she found him doing something stupid. "I believe my son has inherited his father's sense of adventure."

When Naruto returned to Suna he was rather curious why his son had a leash and Harness on him. And why his wife had a cast on.

XXXX

Gaara had a great deal of contempt for the council of her village. She certainly respected them, and they were practical in that they reduced her paperwork load by a great deal. But at times when they asked her for something beyond her duty.

Such as right now when herself and Naruto were standing before her council with the current Hokage, Kakashi joining in. Kakashi had sought to enroll their two-year-old son into an early program in Konoha, given his ability to manipulate the wind like Gaara could sand. When Naruto brought the idea to Gaara she was almost ready to agree, although that would mean her two-year-old son would be spending a lot more time in Konoha.

Which would not be a bad thing once the train was built between the villages, cutting the journey from a full day to two hours.

Everything was okay until her council discovered that she was planning on sending her child to train in Konoha. Even after the war and all these years of peace, none of them wanted who they saw as the future Kazekage go to any other village for training.

"We're not taking your future ruler away." Kakashi drawled out looking half asleep and half ready to throw his hat at Naruto. "Our aim is to simply help Arashi become the best ninja he can be, and we have a-"

"It's bad enough that Gaara choose your future Hokage as a husband, we will not be having our future leader be taught to be loyal to Konoha." One councilor interjected. Oddly enough, it wasn't one of the older ones it was a younger member that Gaara had elected in hopes his views would be more liberal. Sometimes being patriotic was a bad thing.

"We wouldn't be training him to be loyal to Konoha." Sakura who was at the head of the program said firmly. "It's an early-"

Gaara looked at her husband, who was sitting right beside her, holding her hand tightly. A small smile was on his face as he stared off into space. She was at first mad that he wasn't paying attention to the discussion, but then realization crept in that it was an incredibly stupid conversation. The council had no say on what she did for her son. Due to the alliance, due to the treaty, due to Arashi's last name, they couldn't touch him. At Least not directly.

The council could make her life hell until she got fed up and fired them all by removing the current floor of the building. She had filled it with sand once when they first scolded her about marrying Naruto. It was her life and her family. Suna would not be weaker for this bond.

They needed to know that.

"We're not sending the Kazekage's only child to Konoha!" One of the elders shouted, getting a round of nods of approval from his fellows.

Gaara examined the floor as the discussion was getting heated. Largely because Kakashi was letting the emotional Sakura speak for him. It almost looked like he was rereading volume two of Icha Icha.

A classic.

From the depth of the pages, she could see it looked like he was close to the part where Nezumi and Tariya have a heated-

An idea struck Gaara then. Without warning she stood up sharply, dragging a puzzled Naruto up with her. "You are saying this is a problem because of my only child correct?"

The council turned to Gaara a silence befalling over them. They blinked. "Well yes."

Naruto looked at his wife. He liked the way she was squeezing his hand. Good things always followed.

"Well then, this issue is settled. I apologize for bringing you out here for nothing Hokage-sama." Gaara said swiftly. "Sakura-san could you watch over Arashi for a few hours?"

The pink haired woman blinked at her redheaded friend. "I don't think Sarada would mind but why?"

"We're going to go make another child."

The room fell into silence as the Kazekage dragged her husband out of the room. The last sound on the way out was Naruto's soft _Sweet._

Good things did follow.

 **AN: Hi! long time no update. I know I promised an update in like... august? But things got in the way. Like Finding an Alpha... Oh and work... And Legion... And I really couldn't figure out how I wanted things to go. Anyways here's the first of the bonus series.**

 **We'll be seeing the twins next time! wait... was that a spoiler? shit. Oh well**

 **SPECIAL THANKS TO SAMNAMIKAZE23 FOR BEING THE BETA!**

 **Read Finding an Alpha if you haven't already it's like Naruto is Not a Teddy Bear but with a Female Kiba Tsundere bullocks.**

 **Next update is for Finding an Alpha or Sakura Hyuuga is a Bitch.**


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